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ENGLISH RETKACED, 



OR 



ghnnrls, OfriW m& $Motyiwl, 

FOUNDED ON A COMPARISON OF 

THE BREECHES BIBLE 



WITH THE 



ENGLISH OF THE PRESENT DAY. 



n es„, 3t jus et norma loquendi." 

De Arte Poetica. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
H. WALLIS, 24, SIDNEY STREET- 

LONDON: BELL & DALDY, 186, FLEET STEEET. 



18G2. 



.<r\* 



^\<A 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Upwabds of half a century has rolled away since Ingeam, 
in his Inaugural Lecture before the University of Oxford, 
pointed out with force and eloquence, the utility of Anglo 
Saxon Literature. The success which followed his endeavours 
to arrest the attention of his countrymen, not to speak of 
others, which have since also failed, affords but a poor pre- 
cedent for any further attempts which may be made in the 
same direction. "That the Anglo Saxon language has a 
peculiar share of importance and interest ; that it is capable 
of elucidating the principles of grammatical scienc< 
leading us to a philosophical theory of Language," 
positions, which, though none might care to question, 
are found ready to prove. 

But this is not all. Though Anglo Saxon is a language 
pre-eminently qualified by the antiquity of its origin, and 
the purity of its decent, to instruct in the theory and first 
principles of hu T .an speech, it presents yet another aspect, 
which, as regarding not the philologist nor the philosopher, 
so much as the mass of Englishmen generally, has claims of 
a still more urgent character. It is the only language which 
can lead us to an intelligent conception of the English 
tongue. To state in round terms, the conclusion to which 
this assertion (if correct) must lead, that we are as a people 
ignorant of the very language we speak, might appear some- 
what distasteful, nor is this the place to argue in defence 
of such an assertion. 



IV ALT II OTIS PREFACE. 

Yet the Author feels bold to make the avowal, that only 
the settled conviction of widely prevalent misconception re- 
specting the English Language, and also an earnest desire, 
to promote, what seem to him, truer and less contracted 
views, have induced him to publish this little volume. 

If it should be urged, as perhaps with some justice it may, 
that the title selected is not so characteristic and descrip- 
tive as might have been wished, the Author would reply 
that there was really left him but little room for choice. The 
Breeches Bible seemed likely, not only to afford an 
interesting and legitimate field of investigation, but also to 
possess peculiar advantages as a starting point, and basis of 
future operations. So that, though the object of the earlier 
chapters is specific, — namely, to institute a comparison between 
the English of the present and a past century,— and that of 
the latter generally — to advocate the claims of Anglo Saxon 
as a national study ; yet the nature and mode of investiga- 
tion ™ i ' t " ,J . is throughout the same, even where the par- 

sitions sought to be established have differed. 

er appeared to the Author a matter for regret, 
of Anglo Saxon, who have hitherto written on 

Language, have striven rather to obviate and 
lessen the necessity of individual recourse to Anglo Saxon, 
by borrowing from it a few specious rules or illustrations, 
than to foster its study amongst Englishmen generally, by 
shewing how it contains, nob only the key to unlock the 
meaning and logic of wor<Js, but that it is itself moreover 
the soul which animates our language. And, though the 
labours of such men are by no means to be held in light 
esteem on this account, it seems pretty certain, that to 
their neglect in pointing to this conclusion, must be mainly 
attributed the disregard, which as a nation we still pay to 
the true and only mother of our Language. We have allowed 
others to read and interpret for us, where in reality a per- 
sonal enquiry, and an experimental knowledge ought to have 



AUTHORS PREFACE. V 

enabled us to read and interpret for ourselves. Yet, slender 
as may at present be tbe grounds for entertaining such a 
hope, and few the indications which point to its realization, 
the Author feels assured, that the day cannot be very far 
distant, when the apathy and indifference now displayed to 
the study of Anglo Saxon, must give place to other and 
more intelligent views. "With this conviction before him he 
has endeavoured to write, so far as his ability served him, 
not the page over which the advanced student in English or 
Anglo Saxon literature may pore with satisfied delight, but 
that rather on which the honest working bee may rest for 
an hour or so, and find something to carry away, and some- 
thing to think about. 

Nor is he unconscious of the responsibility which must 
of necessity attach itself to attempts of this kind — a respon- 
sibility, unfortunately, which his own imperfections and 
shortcomings tend rather to increase than to lessen. In one 
respect, however, he feels he has some claim to that 
gence which he both needs and asks for. His laboi 
his recreations (for they seemed at times to be each,} 
commenced, and in the main completed, in the quiet 
sion of a country life — amid the bleating of sheep an- the 
lowing of oxen ; — and, though he is proud to possess there 
many friends, of whose uniform kindness he entertains the 
most grateful and abiding remembrance, he had still to re- 
gret the absence for a long period on the continent of the 
only friend to whose judgment and revision he felt willing 
to submit his opinions and proof-sheets. For the assistance, 
however, which on his return, though late, that dear friend 
rendered him, the Author is only too glad to have this 
opportunity of expressing both his obligation and gratitude. 

Cambridge. Lee. 9th, 1861. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 
INDEX OF WORDS. . . . . . . . . . . ix 

CHAPTER 1. 

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. .. .. .. 1 

CHAPTER II. 

THE GENEVAN VERSION. .. .. .. .. 13 

CHAPTER III. 

EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 

CHAPTER IT. 

WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. . . . . . . 67 \ 

CHAPTER V. 

OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. S4 

CHAPTER VI. 

OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE AND PAST PARTICIPLE. Ill 

CHAPTER VII. 

LITERAL CONTRACTIONS— APOSTROPHAL GENITIVE— REMARKS ON 
SOME OF THE CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE GENEVAN 
TRANSLATION AS COMPARED WITH OUR OWN. . . 119 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ON THE MEANING AND CONSTRUCTION OF "THAN". .. 132 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPELLING IN THE BREECHES BIBLE:— 

TENDENCY OF ENGLISH AS ILLUSTRATED THEREBY. . . 1 IJ 

CHAPTER X. 

COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY— INDO-GERMANIC FAMILY— LATIN AND 
GREEK; THEIR ORIGIN AND AFFINITY WITH THE GERMAN 
FAMILY— PEDIGREE OF ENGLISH— THE ROMANCE WALLON — 
ITS INFLUENCE— THE CLAIMS OF LATIN AND ANGLO SAXON 
COMPARED. .. .. .. .. .. 167 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE VALUE OF ANGLO SAXON: FIRST, AS ILLUSTRATING THE 
FORMATION OF LANGUAGE GENERALLY, AND OF ENGLISH IN 
PARTICULAR; SECONDLY, AS DISCOVERING THE TRUE MEAN- 
ING OF ENGLISH WORDS— EXAMPLES— CONCLUSION. . . 189 

APPENDICES. . . . . . . . . . . 215 



INDEX OF WOEDS. 



A. 

WOHD. PAGE. 

Agreeable 165 

Ale 54 

Ancre, (note) 157 

Aught 222 

Avoyded 76 

B. 

Backe, Bat 50 

Banket 63 

Barley, Bere 219 

Barm ib. 

Barn ib. 

Baron ib. 

Barton ib. 

Base 71 

Beadle 89 

Beam 219 

Beech 209 

Beer 219 

Bene, &c 160 

Bern 36 

Berry 219 

Bier ib. 

Bird ib. 

Birth ib. 

Bivouac 50 

Book 209 

Bread) 91A 

Broth} 216 

Bundle 89 

Burnt 37 

C. 

Car, Cart 22 

Cause 67 

Char ) Q1 

Chair} 24 



WOBD. PAGE. 

Chariot 22 

Cheap 39 

Church 118 

Claw, (note) 58 

Cleave 57 

Clerk H8 

Clout 57 

Clover, Club, &c, (note) 58 

Commoditie 72 

Corn 213 

Cornwall, (note) 184 

Creeple 02 

Cress 38 

Crime 68 

Cyrnel 203 

D. 

-d 194-5 

Dangerous, (note) 103 

Deed 80 

Dettes 163 

Disdaine 70 

Disease 69 

-dom 190 

Dung, (note) 94 

E. 

Earnest 202 

Ed- 92 

Endeavor, (note) 154 

-er 192 

Eveque 180 

E. 

Eacion ,. 157 

Eaith ) 90 o 

Eang } m 

«2 



INDEX OF WORDS. 



WORD. PAGB. 

Fardel 87 

Farm 210 

Farthing 32 

Fauohin 157 

Fet . .-* 63, 113 

Fiend <f * 20 „ 

Finger \ zos 

Fornace 162 

Forth 48 

Foughten 115 

Fraile 85 

-ful 197 

G. 

Garb 97 

Gard 104 

Garden ib. 

Garland ib. 

Garter ib. 

Gaunt 78 

Gear 95 

Ghest 105 

Ginn 98 

Girder 104 

Glain 26 

Gome 221 

Grenn 94 

Grices 90 

Groom 221 



H. 

Hand 203 

Handle 205 

Harberous 101 

Harbinger 103 

Harbour 101 

Harneis 157 

Haulm 218 

Hee.&c 161 

Hell 218 

Helm ib. 

Herbergage 102 

Herring 206 

Hole ) 

Hollow \ 218 

Holme ) 

Holpe 113 

Holster 218 

Holt ib. 

-hood 191 

Hornet 209 

Holler, (note) 101 



WORD. PAGE. 

Hound 205 

Hull 218 

Hundreth, (note) 205 

Hunter ib. 

Hurted 115 



I. 

Jakes 93 

Improve 73 

Incontinently ib. 



L. 



Latch 66 

JST 1 } «• 

Lewd, (note) 100 

Lore 206 

Ludgate, (note) 217 

-Ly 196 



M. 

Malt 52 

Mead 80 

Mew 117 

Middest 161 

Mite 33 

Moe, Most ) ,- Q q. 

More J /y_bl 

Mould 52, 220 

Mouldiwarp 57 

Mowle 50 

Morn I « 4 

Morrow ) 



N. 



-n 

Naught ) 
Need j 



194 
91 



O. 

Orchard, (note) 194 

Ordeal 89 

Ought 113 

Owe, (note) ib. 

Own 114 

Overthwart 161 



INDEX OF WOllDS. 



WORD. PAGE. 

Passe 71 

Perfite , 156 

Pestilences 71 

Pight 104 

Pile 

Pill 

Pillage 

Pillory 

Plant . 

Prease. 

Profit 7Q 

Puissant 158 



100 



61 
161 



155 



E. 



Eenowm ) 

Eeproch ) ' 

-ric 190 

Eoume 27 

Eudder 201 



S. 



Seed 80 

Sell, To 36 

Sew 116 

Shire 191 

-ship 192 

Shamefast 30 

Slouth 45 

-some 195 

Sore 
Sorry 
Sorrow 
Sour 

Soul 107 

Sparse 104 

Stairs 202 

Stale . . , 115 

Stee 202 

Sterope ib. 

Stile ib. 

Strength \ 

Strong } 220 

Strook I f 

Stroke \ ln 



29 



WORD. PAGE. 

Stretch, (note) 112 

Surly 29 

Swomme 115 

T. 

-t 194-5 

Term 73 

-th 49,193 

Then} ch. viii. and p. 222 

The, To, (note) 92 

There 199 

Threshold 209 

V. 

Vent 61 

Vineger 161 

Vir 181 



W. 

Wanne 112 

Waits, (note) 50 

Wan ) 

Wand } 76 

Want ) 

Wedlock ) -, A 

Welkin, ) Z1{} 

Werwolf 201 

Wiers 161 

Win, (note) 112 

Witchcraft 190 

Woman 201 



Yard 95, 104 

Yarn \ QK 

Yare } 95 

Yawn, (note) 98 

Yeere 161 

Yes 202 

Yule 209 



EKKATA. 



Page 1, line 21, for "p, p, M read "p, J>." 
Page 17, line 3, for " superintendance" read "superintendence" 
Page 34, lines 9 and 25, for "subaudition" read "subaudition." 
Page 44, line 5, for "met alio," read "metallic." 
Page 89, lines 5 and 9, for "radicle" read "radical," 
Page 94, line 4, for "jacto" read "jacio" 
Page 106, line 17, for "Aire," read "Aire." 
Page 108, line 9, for "Zays," read "lies." 

Page 141, line 23, omit "of" before "than," and line 17, for "sore;-," 
read "soever." 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

I know, and can deeply appreciate the antipathy 
which every Englishman feels to reading a book he 
cannot fairly be expected to understand. In order 
thoroughly to investigate many of the examples of the 
following chapters, I have been driven to that mother 
of our language, the Anglo Saxon, where, alone, a 
rational explanation was to be found. My reader is 
probably aware that the Anglo Saxon characters differ 
very considerably from our own, and that some little 
patience and perseverance would be necessary to render 
them intelligible to his eye. In order to avoid this 
necessity, however, for, saving two exceptions, there is 
really no reason why they should be retained, I have 
taken the liberty of dispensing with them, and in their 
place substituting the letters of our own alphabet. Had 
I not adopted this course, one, be it known, sanctioned 
by the highest authority, I should have had but little 
hope of finding any but Anglo Saxon scholars among 
my readers. The two exceptions are the two Anglo 
Saxon characters which are used to denote the hard 
and soft sounds of th. p, p, denote the hard or rough 
pronunciation which th has in thin, and D, ^, the soft 
pronunciation as in thine. These, then, are the only 
two characters, besides those of our own alphabet, 
which will be met with in the following pages. And 
even the obligation for retaining these is apparent 
rather than real, since both sounds are expressed in 
English by the same symbol. But, as modern Anglo 

B 



2 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

Saxon scholars have thought it advisable to retain 
them, and the eye rapidly becomes accustomed to them, 
I have not thought it worth while to depart from the 
plan usually adopted in this case. 

With regard to the rejection of the Anglo Saxon 
characters, Dr. Bosworth says, that, after mature con- 
sideration, and careful weighing of the respective 
advantages on each side, he is convinced that the 
balance is in favour of using our own characters. And 
indeed, it would be otherwise if the Anglo Saxon 
characters could not be fully represented by our own, 
that is, by the Roman characters. But with the single 
exception of th they can. And if in reality the Anglo 
Saxon is the base of the English language it would 
be absurd to suppose the contrary. The question seems 
not unnaturally to arise; why, since the structure of 
English, so far, that is, as it has survived the violent 
shocks it has had to sustain, is still Anglo Saxon, and 
since, no less than, out of the thirty-eight thousand 
words which our language is said to contain, twenty- 
three thousand — nearly five-eighths — are still Saxon; 
why, in the face of all this, the Anglo Saxon characters 
were ever relinquished. The following facts may tend 
to explain this apparent anomaly. 

About the year a.d. 1100 is generally supposed to 
represent the period when the change from Anglo Saxon 
to Anglo Norman 1 took place. 



1 I use both these expressions, Anglo Saxon and Anglo Norman, under 
protest, and for the following reasons:— 

Of the eight colonies, if so they may be called, which constituted the 
Saxon Octarchy, one is Jute, three are Saxon, and four only out of the 
eight are Anglian (from Anglen in Sleswick). The Anglians occupied the 
]\*orth and East of England. The Saxons proper, but called by way of 
distinction the West Saxons, occupied the South and West parts. In a.d. 
827 Egbert king of the West Saxons defeated or made tributary all the 
other Saxon kingdoms, and united them all in his own person. Egbert 
was eventually succeeded by Alfred the Great, who expelled the Danes and 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 6 

This at least is the opinion maintained by Professor 
Rask in his Anglo Saxon Grammar. The change of 
course cannot be said to have taken place at any precise 
date, since it would necessarily be very gradual and 
extended over many years : but this is the nearest 
approximation that can be made. 

The language spoken at the court of William the 
Conqueror and his successors was Norman. Each Baron 
introduced Norman at his castle, and, refusing to learn, 
what he considered, the barbarous Saxon dialect, com- 
pelled those Saxons who lived under him as vassels 
to learn it also. All property being now in the hands 
of the Normans, the laws regulating its transfer and 
tenure were made in the Norman language. Thus 
the Norman took possession of the Court, the Hall, 
and the Forum, while the Saxon had to put up with 
such an asylum as the humble cot of the serf could 
afford. There is an anecdote told that when Henry 
the Second, about the middle of the twelftli century 
was passing through Pembrokeshire he was addressed 
by the English title of " Good olde Kynge," so ignorant, 
however, was that monarch of the Saxon tongue that 
he had to ask of one of his courtiers what was the 
meaning of " Kynge." 

A knowledge of the Norman tongue was at this 
time an indispensable acquirement for every one who 
aspired to the rank of a gentleman. Little wonder, then, 
that, under these circumstances, the Saxon characters 

encouraged literature. He translated into his own language the works of 
Boethius, Orosius, and Bede, thus giving a great stimulus to the West 
Saxon over the other Saxon dialects, which caused it eventually to be 
spoken over the whole of England. 

And if Anglo cannot with justice be applied to Saxon to designate 
the language ultimately spoken by our fore-fathers, with how much less 
propriety can it be applied to Norman, to designate that compound which 
was formed by the mixture of Saxon and Norman French, and which is 
now the fabric of the English Language. 



4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

should have fallen into disuse. There was in fact 
no use for them. This being the case, the Saxon 
letters disappeared rapidly and gave place to the 
Roman or Italic letters used by the Normans. Power 
was wrested from the hands of the conquered Saxons, 
who, henceforth, seem to have lost all control over 
their literature. Yet, when at last the two classes — 
the conquerors and the conquered found themselves com- 
pelled to amalgamate 1 the concessions were not all on 
one side. On the one hand the Normans were com- 
pelled to acknowledge the abortiveness of their attempts 
to foist their language on the people they had subdued ; 
while, on the other hand, the people had lost irre- 
trievably the art of writing, in their own characters, 
that language, which their conquerors had failed to 
deprive them of. Is not this a triumph of nature over 
art. Time and adverse circumstances had, indeed, 
snatched away the artificial forms of the written lan- 
guage ; but the language itself, as it lived on the 
tongue, animated the mind, and sanctified many a time 
honoured association, required a stronger will than that 
of man to displace it. 

Many of us have read with a strange curiosity, of 
the discoveries which have been made during the last 
few years by Layard and other travellers in the East. 
We have read of cities, whose very sites had almost 
been forgotton; of the palaces and sepulchres of kings, 
sepulchres on whose marble walls were delineated the 
memorable acts of those whose ashes they contain. We 
are told that so far as these drawings or hieroglyphics 
have been interpreted and compared with other — prin- 
cipally sacred — records, left us relative to the same 
supposed events, they afford a very striking testimony 
to the truth of Sacred Historic Narrative. So, then, 
in the following pages I have endeavoured to throw a 

1 This amalgamation took place in effect about a.d. 1258, in the reign 
of Henry III. What was written after this period may be called English. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 

taper light on one of those sepulchral tablets, which 
lie, mouldering and forgotten, in the dank catacombs 
of the past, and will, mayhap, reveal an inscription not 
altogether uninteresting or uninstructive to repay the 
toil of deciphering it. Such at least I hope will be 
the case. What I have done, I have done in good 
faith, and with the desire not so much to make any 
new discovery, as to call attention to that most impor- 
tant of all a nation's studies, the study of its own 
language. I have already alluded to this subject in 
my preface, though briefly. Permit me, before going 
further, to revert to it in a more explicit manner. I 
will begin by relating my own experience so far as it 
bears on this subject. 

I was educated at one of our largest schools, which, 
though not public in the strict sense of the w*ord, is, 
yet, I am well assured, inferior to none of those which 
are, until it was time for me to enter upon my academic 
course at Cambridge. I am bound to confess, and in 
doing so I feel convinced I shall not in the least 
degree be disparaging, in comparison with other public 
schools, an institution which has claims on my affec- 
tion, second only to these of Alma Mater, that not 
till long after I had assumed the "toga virilis" did 
I obtain any adequate conception of the nature and 
constitution of my mother tongue. 

I do not believe mine is by any means a solitary 
example; for I do not know of a single school in 
this kingdom where any attempt is made to impart a 
fundamental knowledge of English Classics. English 
Classics! What do they mean? The notion of a 
classic knowledge of English seems absurd. Greek and 
Latin form the only classics which come within the 
range of School-boy 1 experience. As for English, it 

1 It will be understood that by School-boys I refer principally to 
that large and important (prospectively important) class who fill the 
upper benches at our large Public Schools. 



6 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

will do for the forms of the lower School, but is 
beneath the notice of those of the upper. Indeed, so 
long as the Iambics and Latin prose are forthcoming 
at due time, it is no concern of the scholastic economy 
to look after English grammar. I do not speak with 
regard to English composition; for it is impossible to 
have better preceptors than the Greek and Latin 
authors; but with regard to the anatomy, and consti- 
tution of English. How strange it seems that we 
should so ignore our own language, while a little 
life-time is devoted ungrudgingly to the acquirement of 
Latin and Greek. 

Is it that there is really nothing in English to 
learn but what every body knows ; and, that what there 
is to learn can best be learned, — nay some would even 
say, can only be learned — by studying the Greek and 
Latin languages? 

It is to afford an answer to these two important 
questions that I have written the following pages. 

I should be sorry to assert that there is a great 
lack of means necessary for acquiring the information I 
speak of. On the contrary, there are several excellent 
books on this subject, written by men in every way 
fitted for their task. Still one swallow does not make 
summer; nor do one or two volumes, accessible only 
to the means and education of the wealthy, unknown 
in our public, much more in our private schools, suffice 
to disseminate that knowledge of English, which, it is 
not too much to say, every man of even moderate edu- 
cation ought to possess. Better far would it be to lay 
no claim to the teaching of the English language than 
make it the subject of such a miserable burlesque as is 
the case at present. Let us hope the time is not far 
distant when we shall awake from our torpor, and Eng- 
lishmen will remove the stigma, that they know and can 
learn all languages but their own. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 

The investigations of some of the following chapters 
are I hope calculated to shew, not by mere ipse dixits, 
Or random asseverations, but by the irrefrangible proof 
of fact the validity and justice of the foregoing remarks. 

I have not yet given my reasons for taking the 
Breeches, or Genevan version of the bible, as my pioneer. 
I will now do so. 

I am unable to regard it otherwise than as a strange 
coincidence, that a Bible which belonged to my family, 
probably two centuries ago, should after an exile of a 
hundred and fifty years find its way back again. Such 
however has been the case. How this came to pass, it 
will excite no surprise, that I do not feel entirely at 
liberty to state, any further than that it appeared to 
be in the most fortuitous manner possible. 

To borrow a simile from antiquity; picture to your- 
self the heathen who had omitted to insert in the 
mouth of his deceased parent the small coin necessary 
to secure him a passage across the Styx, and avert the 
calamity of wandering for ever and ever up and down 
its muddy shores ; picture the joy which such a son, 
were he a pious one, would learn that Charon had at 
length consented to exert his kindly office, and convey 
the weary shade to the House of Hades. Such a joy 
was mine in being able to welcome back the old family 
Bible to its own rightful resting place, after long years 
of weary travail up and down this wide world. 

The remarks of Dean Trench respecting our present 
version of the Bible are, I conceive, no less applicable 
to the Genevan version. The following are his words : 
he is speaking of the composite nature of the English 
language. 

" I do not know where we could find a happier example of 
the preservation of the . golden mean in this matter than in our 
authorized version of the Bible. One of the chief among the 
minor and secondary blessings which that version has conferred 



8 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

on the nation, or nations drawing spiritual life from it — a 
blessing not small in itself, but only small by comparison with 
the infinitely higher blessings whereof it is the vehicle to them, 
— is the happy wisdom, the instinctive tact, with which its 
authors have steered between any futile mischievous attempts 
to ignore the full rights of the Latin part of the language on 
the one side, and on the other, any burdening of their version 
with such a multitude of learned Latin terms as should cause 
it to forfeit its homely character, and shut up great portions 
of it from the understanding of plain and unlearned men." 1 

And I think this testimony is applicable to the 
Genevan version no less than onr own, because it was 
the same spirit, the same thirsting after the word of 
God by the people of England, that called both the 
versions, especially the former, into existence. 

It was essentially the demand of the people that 
called forth the Genevan Translation ; and it was under- 
taken by men who knew, that to succeed in their work, 
they must have, not only learning and piety, but also 
be actuated by a firm determination to put the result 
of their labours in such a form as to be within the 
reach of the humblest reader. On this account I 
think the Genevan version of the Bible is peculiarly 
fitted to become the exponent of the English language 
at the time it was written. We shall do well to recollect 
that it would then recommend itself to every peasant 
in the land; to him it would present no difficulties 
in English ; and all those words and phrases which 
old father Time has somewhat caricatured to us, would 
be simple and intelligible enough to him. I would 
observe that we have here no obscure author, or anti- 
quated poet, in whose pages the occurrence of strange 
words and phrases to us, might, or might not, be 
indicative of the then condition of the language; but 
the Book of Life itself, that Book which beside being 
the only source of true wisdom and happiness here, and 
our sole guide to heaven hereafter, was for a long time 

1 " English, Past and Present," p. 31. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 

the cherished and favourite version in many a humble 
cot, and has, therefore, peculiar claims to our affection- 
ate regard. Nor must it be supposed that the difference 
existing between the Genevan and our present one is 
very wide. The Text as a whole so nearly resembles 
our own, that a cursory glance might fail to detect the 
difference. 

It is only here and there; now perhaps, by the 
antique spelling, by a curious contraction; or, now, by 
a word that does not seem to fit the eye, or suggest 
a meaning to the mind, that this difference is forced 
upon us. The staple is the same as our own version ; 
a fact which will be the more easily credited, when I 
say that I read through the whole Book of the Prophet 
Jeremiah without finding above two or three instances 
of material alteration, either with regard to spelling, in 
the words themselves, or in general diction. Indeed, so 
much was this the case that for a time I questioned 
whether my somewhat laborious task would not in the 
end prove a fruitless one. I think, therefore, not to 
speak of internal evidence, the remarks of Dean Trench 
quoted above are as applicable to the Genevan or 
Breeches version as our own. . 

For the information of those who are not already 
aware of it, I will state the reason why the Genevan 
version came to be called the Breeches Bible. If we 
turn to the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, verse 
7, we read as follows : " Then the eyes of them both 
were opened, and they knew that they were naked, 
and they sewed figge tree leaves together, and made 
themselves breeches" 

Such then is the simple reason why this version 
came to receive the forcible, rather than elegant, epithet 
of the " Breeches Bible." 

The next chapter I have devoted to the brief con- 
sideration of the historic records respecting this Book ; to 
that I refer my reader for further particulars. It will be 



10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

seen there, that the translation was completed in a, d. 
1560; my copy however bears the date of 1008, so that 
it would not be an early edition. I have not had an 
opportunity of consulting one of the earliest copies pub- 
lished, and, therefore, I cannot say whether any material 
alterations had taken place between 1560 and 1608. I 
do not think it is likely, judging at least from my copy. 
However, such are the facts of the case. For enquirers 
who can approach their task with a spirit of reverence, 
I imagine it would be difficult to find any single book 
whose claims to represent, fully and impartially, our 
written and spoken language, rest on a more substan- 
tial foundation than the Bible, and this on account of 
the ample scope it affords for the play of language. 

In no other is the relationship to time and circum- 
stance so varied, and, consequently, in no other is there 
so great a demand for variety of style and diction. All 
phases of life ; all classes and conditions of men ; all 
aspects of society, and forms of government, are there, 
more or less fully, represented. 

We have the terse sentences of the annalist; the 
plain and simple directions of the lawgiver; the calm 
reflection, the ecstatic fervour of the moralist and poet : 
and, above all, the thrilling accents of Him who spake 
as never man spake. 

At one time, we enter with the train of kings into 
palaces of the utmost magnificence, and view with daz- 
zled eyes the fabled splendor of the east ; at another 
we behold the beggar who lies at the gate of the rich 
man desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fall from 
his table. Now we listen to the triumphal posans of 
a victorious army ; again we are called to mourn over 
a dismantled city, or watch the gaunt forms of its 
inhabitants as they sorrowfully commence their journey 
to a foreign land. Such are some of the scenes depicted. 
Surely these, and there are many others like them, afford 
scope enough for language. Nor is the opportunity for 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 11 

pourtraying and preserving the colloquial scarcely less 
than that for registering the written portion of the 
language : — that portion which lived from day to day 
in the domestic scenes and the familiar intercourse of 
man with man. May we not listen to the dialogues 
of our master as he disputed with learned doctors 
of the law ; or to his precepts as He taught his hum- 
ble followers,, only Himself more humble, the simple 
elements of that Divine philosophy whose very foolish- 
ness was to confound the wise ? Or we may even attend 
them as they "sit at meat," and almost, as it were, enter 
with them into their varied discourse. 

By tracing a river from its confluence with the 
ocean we may, if we are patient enough, at length 
discover its source. Or, should the difficulties which 
oppose the investigation prove insurmountable, and not 
permit us to ascend further than the mountain torrent, 
or the subterraneous exit, yet we shall, in all proba- 
bility, be able to trace it far enough to have our 
conceptions of its origin and natural history widely 
enlarged. Language, then, I would compare to such a, 
river, whose source, or sources, it is our wish to inves- 
tigate ; — a poor and thread-bare simile enough, I am 
ready to admit ; yet, sufficient for my purpose, if it 
assist in explaining my meaning. As, in the case of 
the natural stream, by carefully following its course, 
as it winds along the foot of the distant hills, we shall 
at length reach the mountain pass, whence we may 
behold the little streamlet, swollen by successive contri- 
butions, winding its way through the sloping valleys 
beneath; so, by tracing the course of language up to 
the distant hills behind us, and following its banks as 
they become narrower, and the waters they contain 
more precipitate, we gain an insight into its origin 
and nature, which this laborious method alone can afford. 

Not that I have, in the following chapters, con- 
ducted you, reader, to these hills, — those peaks which 
loom in undefined outline through the surrounding mists 



12 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

of the past, — nay, we shall scarcely leave the plain, or 
rather, we shall but mount another step. The river 
will still flow in mighty span at our feet, though its 
waters may be somewhat more turgid. Here and there 
we may perceive a whirling eddy indicative of some 
antagonistic and inharmonious agency; some inequality, 
it may be, in the river-bed ; or, some tributary stream 
whose waters have not yet blended with those that 
receive them. 

This is not the place to offer any remarks upon the 
character of the spelling at the time we are about to 
consider : they will be found in their proper place. Still 
there is one conclusion, which I think it will not be 
amiss here to anticipate. It is the apparent absence 
of all fixed rules to determine the orthography of words. 

On this account alone, would it have been unadvis- 
able to take an earlier version of the Bible. As it is, 
I have not entirely escaped the inconvenience arising 
from extreme laxity of spelling ; and I have sometimes 
fancied I have seen an etymology shadowed forth in a 
peculiar mode of spelling, which, on further investiga- 
tion, has proved a mere ignis fatuus. So that sometimes 
a word has given rise to two questions ; first, does the 
spelling indicate anything, or is it to be attributed to 
the caprice (if that can be called caprice where there is 
apparently no design) of the age ; secondly, if it does 
suggest anything, what is it ? I hope, however, 1 shall not 
be found guilty of making capital on this score, or of dis- 
turbing my neighbours by the false alarm of " Fire, Fire/' 



CHAPTER II. 



THE GENEVAN VERSION. 

The short respite which the Reformed Church of 
England enjoyed during the reign of Edward VI. was 
like the calm which preludes the storm. Scarcely had 
Mary ascended the throne before she issued a procla- 
mation, which materially altered the condition, and 
blighted the hopes of the Protestants of this country. 

This act, which was passed in the October of 1553, 
suppressed King Edward's Liturgy and, in effect, re- 
stored ecclesiastical matters to pretty much the same 
state they were in during the latter part of the reign 
of Henry VIII., when the Scriptures seem almost to 
have been denied to the people by the prohibition of 
both Coverdale's and Tyndale's versions. 

It was the reinforcement of this Act, and conformity 
to the injunction of their great Master, who told them, 
when persecuted in one city to flee unto another, that 
many of those, who had taken an active part in pro- 
moting the Reformation in England, sought to escape 
the impending storm by voluntary exile. 

Germany and Switzerland, that land of classic liberty, 
afforded a temporary home for these pious men. Frank- 
fort appears to have been chosen at first; and here 
they might have settled down in peaceful enjoyment 
of their religion, had not internal dissentions respecting 
the English Liturgy and other matters of ritual, arisen 
to disturb that unity. But alas! how often are a man's 
bitterest foes they of his own household. Here, in 



14 THE GENEVAN VERSION. 

common with the French Protestant Refugees, they 
had the use of one of the city churches for the per- 
formance of their services; but party feeling at length 
became so strong, that the Puritans found it necessary 
to seek a fresh home. This they did in the city of 
Geneva, and here it was that the Breeches Bible, or the 
Genevan version was compiled. 

Whatever may have been the faults of the Puritan 
party, and doubtless there were faults on both sides, 
there is no doubt it was composed of men of strictly 
conscientious views ; and it is very pleasant to picture 
to ourselves these poor exiles from their native country 
for the sake of religion, finding a peaceful retreat on 
the shores of the beautiful lake Leman. We can ima- 
gine how they would rejoice, that at last, even on 
earth, they had found an asylum, where the hand of 
persecution could not reach them, and where above all 
they could sweetly meditate on the words of their Master. 

Still, in this their peaceful retreat, they were not un- 
mindful of the spiritual wants of their brethren. They 
saw the urgent demand there was for a new and entire 
version of the Scriptures; and, like men actuated by 
holy purpose, they set to work at once to supply the 
want of their age. 

Surely we cannot wonder, that under such circum- 
stances, the blessing of God richly attended their la- 
bours, or that the result of them was to furnish a 
Bible which would be disseminated through the length 
and breadth of England, leavening the people, as it 
were, with its spirit, and, finally, in a great measure, 
reproducing itself in the very Bible which is now the 
precious treasure of many an English heart. During 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from 1560 to 1603, no 
less than one hundred and thirty distinct issues of the 
Bible were made ; and of these ninety were of the 
Genevan version. This fact affords sufficient evidence 
of the favour and popularity it enjoyed. 



THE GENEVAN VERSION. 15 

The men principally engaged in making the Genevan 
version were, William Whittingham, Thomas Sampson 
an Oxford man, and Anthony Gilly a Cambridge man, 
who sought refuge on the continent at the commence- 
ment of Mary's reign. It is not certain that Coverdale 
assisted in the work of translation. If he did, it could 
but have been for a very short time; as he was at 
Geneva only during parts of the years 1558 and 1559, 
while it was being made. 

William Whittingham, who, it must not be forgotten, 
had previously, in 1557, published alone a translation of 
the New Testament, called the Genevan Testament, was 
educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was appointed 
to a fellowship at All Souls' in 1545. He took part 
in the Frankfort controversies, and adhering to the 
Puritan side, accompanied those who held the same 
opinions to the city of Geneva, and became the minister 
of the congregation that was presently formed there. 
The Genevan Bible was completed in April, 1560, and, 
hence, and from the preface it will appear, it must 
have been commenced in 1558. Let us listen for a 
moment while these pious earnest men tell us of their 
labours. 

" Now, forasmuch as God's glory is chiefly attained by the know- 
ledge and practising of the worde of God (which is the light to 
our pathes, the key of the kingdome of heaven, our comfort in 
affliction, our shield and sword against Satan, the school of all 
wisdome, the glasse wherein we beholde God's face, the testimony 
of his favour, and the onely foode and nourishment of our soules) 
we thought we could bestowe our labours and studie in nothing, 
which could bee more acceptable to God, and comfortable to his 
Church, than in the translating of the holy Scriptures into our 
native tongue, the which thing, albeit that divers heretofore 
have indeavoured to atcheive : yet considering the infancy of 
those times and imperfect knowledge of the tongues, in respect 
of this ripe age and cleare light which God hath now reveiled, 
the translations required greatly to be perused and reformed. 
Not that we vendicate anything to ourselves above the least 
of our brethren (for God knoweth with what feare and tremb- 
ling we have bene for the space of two yeeres and more, day 



16 THE GENEVAN VERSION. 

and night, occupied herein) but being earnestly desired, and 
by divers whose learning and godlines we reverence, exhorted, 
and also incouraged by the ready willes of such, whose hearts 
God likewise touched, not to spare any charges for the further- 
ance of such a benefit and favour of God toward his church 
(though the time then was most dangerous, and the persecution 
sharpe and furious) we submitted ourselves at length to their 
godly judgements, and seeing the great opportunitie and 
occasions which God presented to us in his church, by reason 
of so many godly and learned men, and such diversities of 
translations in divers tongues : we undertooke this great and 
wonderful worke (as in the presence of God, as intreating the 
worde of God, whereunto we think ourselves insufficient) which 
now God, according to his divine providence and mercy hath 
directed to a most prosperous end." 

We may feel somewhat inclined to smile, when we 
hear these good and simple hearted men talk of their 
"own ripe age and cleare light :" yet, we shall do 
well to bear in mind that each age is only ripe in 
comparison with those which have preceded it, and 
the time will probably come when the boasted enlight- 
enment of the present generation will appear equally 
ridiculous and vain. We cannot well over-estimate, not 
only the candour and self denial, but also the learning 
and piety of these men. We ourselves are reaping the 
fruits of their labours, and can ill afford to jest at 
their expense. But indeed this was no idle boast, after 
all on their part, for the age in which they were living 
presented a remarkable contrast to those which preceded 
it. The minds of Englishmen were now being eman- 
cipated from the galling chains of religious despotism; 
awaking to a sense of their degraded position, they 
became clamorous for the restoration of their invaded 
rights and privileges. Literature and science, too, were 
making rapid progress, and, hand in hand with religion, 
fast putting to flight the dark shade of ignorance and 
superstition, which had brooded, like a foul nightmare, 
for centuries past over Europe at large. 

The thirst for knowledge of all kinds — of religious 
knowledge in particular — had been excited, and now no 
barriers were able to repress it. Version after version 



THE GENEVAN VERSION. 17 

testify to the impatience which men felt to obtain for 
themselves the Book of Life. The Great Bible, under 
the superintendance of Coverdale and the patronage of 
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was printed at Paris in 1538-39, 
in spite of the opposition manifested by the Inquisition, 1 
which caused those who were engaged in this work to 
delay their labours for a time. 

This Bible — the Great Bible — was a revision of 
Matthew's, or Tyndale's version. In the following year, 
1540, another version was issued, which goes by the 
name of Cranmer's Bible, because it has a preface by 
Cranmer. 

In 1541 appeared another edition, "oversene and 
perused at the commandemet of the Kynges hyghnes, 
by the right reverend Fathers in God, Cuthbert, Byss- 
hop of Duresme, and Nicholas, Bishop of Rochester." 

The year previous to his decease, Henry VIII. pro- 
hibited both Coverdale's and Tyndale's versions. Death 
however annulled the decree, and opened out the bible 
again to its anxious enquirers. During the short reign 
of Edward VI. embracing a period of only six years 
and a half, no less than fifty editions of the bible were 
published, and all by the people themselves. Still, no 
new entire translation was made, till we come to the 
Genevan version, though at one time it appears to have 
been in contemplation. Men were now at liberty to 
exercise their own judgment, and were left to their 
own consciences as a guide. And, indeed, so good was 
their will that there was little need of any coercive 

1 Coverdale and his party were summoned to appear before the In- 
quisition, but, knowing the partiality and religious intolerance of that 
tribunal, they preferred to secure their safety by flight. In doing so 
they were compelled to leave a large portion of their work behind them, 
consisting of sheets already printed. These sheets were seized by the In- 
quisition and some of them were burned. How any of them escaped 
appears little short of a miracle, yet, we are told that "four great dry 
flats full " were sold to a haberdasher " to lap his caps in." They were 
afterwards recovered by Grafton. 

c 



18 THE GENEVAN VERSION. 

influence. They Lad at last obtained the boon they 
had longed for, and with a keen appetite they were 
regaling themselves to the full on the rich repast. But 
Mary succeeded to the throne, and this brings us to 
the subject we are more particularly considering, and 
from which we started. 

The style of the Genevan Bible is purely English 
throughout; so far, that is, as English can ever be 
called pure : by which I mean, that there is no attempt, 
as in the Rheimish version, to introduce words which 
would not be understood by every English reader. In 
the Bheimish version, which, we must recollect, was 
prepared in self defence by the popish exiles, we find 
such words as "pasche" " azymes" "neophyte," and 
others, the only object of which could be to obscure 
the true meaning of the text, and, so virtually, render 
it useless. A similar attempt was made even in Henry's 
reign by Gardiner, to revise the New Testament, that 
certain majestic words which are found in the Latin 
Vulgate 1 might be transferred to the New version. His 
mean design was frustrated by Cranmer. 

In the Genevan version, however, we have a faithful 
portrait of the English language as written and understood 
at this time. Indeed, when we consider the disadvan- 
tages it had to contend with, the obstacles which stood 
in the way of its ever becoming the popular version 
in this country, as we know it did, the conclusion forces 
itself upon us, that there must have been some secret 
chords of sympathy to knit it so closely to the hearts 
of our forefathers. 

We have already observed that the translation was 
completed in 1560; still for fifteen years after no edition 

1 Fuller says "Gardiner's design plainly appeared in stickling for the 
preserving of so many Latin words to obscure the Scripture, who, though 
wanting power to keep the light of the Word from shining, sought out 
of policy to put it into a dark lantern, contrary to the constant practice 
of God in Scripture, levelling high hard expressions to the capacity of 
the meanest." Our Bng. Bible, p. 116. 



THE GENEVAN VERSION. 19 

of this version was published in England. What was 
the real cause of this, it is difficult now to determine. 
By some it is supposed that Archbishop Parker opposed 
the obstacle by wishing to exercise a control over its 
publication, to which Bodley, who had obtained from 
Queen Elizabeth the patent for printing the same for 
seven years, would not submit. Whatever may have 
been the cause, there is no doubt that, in spite of 
the difficulty, this version speedily became the favourite 
with the common people of England. 

The "Bible of the greatest volume" which would 
in all probability be the Great Bible, was that specified 
in the Queen's injunction, to be provided for every 
parish church. Still, we are assured that the Genevan 
version was the one preferred for private and family use. 

We must guard against the error of supposing that 
our Translation was the result of a single welkorganized 
attempt. On the contrary, we may safely look upon it 
as but a revision, with some corrections and amendments 
it is true, of all the previous versions. At the time 
we are considering, it is probable that the people and 
the clergy were conscious they did not yet possess any 
single version worthy of their entire confidence. 

On this account it was not deemed advisable to 
stereotype any that had yet appeared by the royal 
assent; but, rather to allow each person a discretionary 
power of his own. This fact seems further borne out 
by Queen Elizabeth granting to Bodley, the father of 
the celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley, who founded the 
magnificent library at Oxford, which bears his name, the 
patent for printing the Genevan version for seven years. 

As Archbishop Parker was either unable, or unwilling 
to countenance the Genevan version, prejudiced perhaps 
by the Calvinistic principles of its compilers, he set about 
producing a new one, which, on account of its being the 
joint work of several of his episcopal brethren, he 
called the Bishops' Bible. This Bible was published in 



20 THE GENEVAN VERSION. 

1568. Whatever may have been its merits, one thing 
is certain, that it never enjoyed the popularity of the 
Genevan version. 

At the time of the compilation of our present Bible 
the Bishops' Bible was that used in churches, and 
appointed to be generally followed. Still in cases where 
the superiority of other versions, as Tyndale's, Coverdale's, 
Matthew's, "Whitchurch's, the Genevan, was manifest, 
the latter were to be followed by our translators : and 
I cannot but think, from a careful perusal of the Gene- 
van version, that our translators must have derived 
material assistance from it. 

It is remarkable, that long after the publication of 
our authorized version, which did not take place till 
1611, the Genevan version had rooted itself so strongly 
in England, that it refused for some time to give way. 
I believe I have good authority for stating that it con- 
tinued to be printed so late as the year 1641. 1 

But now having exceeded the limits which I origin- 
ally marked out for this portion of my subject, and 
having said more than my reader had any right to 
expect, my book shall henceforth speak for itself. 

1 1 will here relate an incident which occurred to me some little 
time ago, which, though trivial, is, still, in my mind indicative of the 
esteem in which the Breeches Bible is held. I happened to be looking 
over some old books in a stationer's shop when the bookseller shewed me 
a veritable Breeches Bible, which, as he said, he laid great store by. 
Having examined it, he brought me another, to all appearance, of still 
greater antiquity. In haste I turned to see if it were also a Breeches 
Bible, when to my surprise I found the first three chapters of the Book 
of Genesis missing. On further examination, it turned out to be merely 
an early copy of our present version, and of little more value, in an 
antiquarian point of view, than a tenpenny Bible. I have little doubt, 
that it had been thus mutilated for the purpose of being palmed off on 
some unwary individual as a Breeches Bible. 



CHAPTER III. 



EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING SUGGESTIVE OF 
ETYMONS. 1 

How the meanings of words may frequently be 
arrived at by merely tracing them a step or two back- 
wards, nearer their origin, has already been indicated. 

Proceeding, then, in conformity with this theory, I 
have collected in this chapter such words as appear to 
support it. It is the pride of a mere curiosity seeker, 
hardly deserving the name of Antiquary, to drag to the 
light of day relics of the past, which can in no way 
serve the uses of the present and future. Such, how- 
ever, is not my intention, in this place at least. It 
would be quite possible, I doubt not, for any one, who 
felt so inclined, to string together a number of words 
entirely strange to men of the present age. I hope, 
however, the examples adduced in the following pages 
will not be of barren character, but will contain some 
lesson, expressed, or understood, that will admit of 
application to our own wants, and our own times. In 
this way alone can the exploration of the past be of any 
service. Words, indeed, unlike the men whose deeds 
they chronicle, need no historians; they are their own 
annalists, and tell a story incapable either of falsifi- 
cation, or misconstruction. It needs but that we treat 
them fairly; that we summon them before us in their 
natural costume, to learn from them all they can teach 
us. They will tell their tale in a manner not the less 
eloquent because silent, nor convincing because brief. 

1 An Etymon is the true origin of a word. 



22 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

Before entering, however, on the consideration of the 
following chapters, there is one remark I wish to make ; 
applicable, not to them alone, bnt to the wide subject 
of etymology generally : namely, that on no person does 
a dogmatic spirit sit with so ill a grace as the etymolo- 
gist ; because, in no other subject is there such wide 
room for difference of opinion. 

For the explanations which the following pages contain 
I lay claim to little merit. If I have found a difficulty 
I could not myself solve, I have had recourse, in all 
cases, to the best authorities I could procure. On further 
perusal, my reader will find to how great an extent I 
have availed myself of the previous labours of Mr. 
Home Took, not that in all cases I have adopted his 
views, but because his explanations are, I think, on the 
whole, the most rational and trustworthy. 

CHARET. 

" And hee said, this shall bee the maner of the King that 
shall reigne ouer you : hee will take your sonnes, and appoint 
them to his ckarets, and to be his horsemen, and some shall 
runne before his charet." — 1 Samuel, viii. 11. 

I am not sure whether our modern form chariot 
occurs at all in the Breeches Bible ; certainly charet 
is by far the more common. It appears almost impos- 
sible to see this older form, evidently connected with 
the more modern one now in use, without asking the 
question, what does this close resemblance, and yet 
this difference, intimate ? Why is there any difference 
at all ? Home Took says : 

" Car, Cart, Chariot, &c. and the Latin Carrus are the past 
participle Cy'ren of the Anglo Saxon verb Cy'r-an, to turn. 
This word was first introduced into the Roman language by 
Caesar, who learned it in his war with the Germans." 

But this is a very bold assertion; for, in the first 
place, it is more likely that Csesar first met with 
the word among the Gauls, than among the Germans; 
in which case the word would be Celtic; and, in the 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 23 

second place, the absence of several of these words, 
chariot for instance, from the Anglo Saxon, renders it 
next to impossible that they should be derived from, 
or even through, it by immediate descent. 

The passage above affords a suggestion we shall do 
well to notice. Who could see the two words charet 
and charette, the one English and the other French, 
without being at once convinced that they are the 
same word; — the former the Anglicised counterpart of 
the latter. The resemblance is so striking ; the foreigner 
had at this time altered his appearance and dress so 
little, that it is impossible not to distinguish him. 

But with our present form chariot, the resemblance 
is not nearly so striking, and a doubt might reasonably 
be entertained respecting the parentage of the word. 
It is clear, the word was French before it was English, 
and this remark is also applicable to some others, which 
have been deduced in too great haste from the Anglo 
Saxon. Our word car is undoubtedly a French word. 
Though, it is not impossible that cart may be nothing 
more than the Anglo Saxon word crcet, a cart, so altered 
by transposition. Not only is char, a good French word 
to this day, but we have evidence to shew that this 
was the exact form in which it first appeared in our 
language. 

"And as the guise was in his contree, 
Full high upon a char of gold stood hee, 
With four white bolles in the trais. 
Instede of cote-armure on his harnais, 
With nayles yelwe, and bright as any gold, 
He had a beres skin, cole-blake for old." 

Canter-bury Tales, 2138. 

But whatever may be the root of the words car 
and chariot, whether it be Celtic 1 or Teutonic, for it 

1 Having insinuated a doubt as to the truth of Mr. Home Took's 
assertion, that the word earns was introduced into the Latin language 
by Csesar, who learned it in his war with the Germans, I feel bound to 
say something in support of this opinion. 

In the First Book of Caesar's Commentaries, De Bello Gallico, and at 
the beginning of the third section, the following passage occurs : 



24 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

is almost impossible now to ascertain, there is no 
doubt that the Saxon verb Cyr-an has bequeathed to 
posterity a large and valuable legacy. Thus char with 
its compounds charcoal, charwoman, churworm; chair, 
with its compound chairman; churn, cardinal, perhaps 
cart, and the verb to jar, as well as ajar, may all be 
referred to this root. In each the radical meaning of the 
verb is implied. 

A char means any odd job to which a person may 
turn for a short time; and in the Anglo Saxon it 
signified exactly what we mean when we use such ex- 
pressions as " doing a man a good turn," " one good 

"His rebus adducti, et auctoritate Orgetorigis permoti, constituerunt, 
ea, quee ad proficiscendum pertinerent, comparare; jumentorum et car- 
rorum quam maximum numerum ccemere; sementes quam maximas 
facere, ut in itinere copia frumenti suppeteret; cum proximis civitatibus 
pacem et amicitiam confirmare." 

Again section 26: 

"Alteri ad impedimenta et carros suos se contulerunt." 

Now it is very evident, from the context of these passages, that it was 
not the Germans with whom Caesar was now carrying on war. It was 
in fact the Helvetii of whom Caesar himself tells us "they excel the 
rest of the Gauls in valour because they are engaged in almost daily 
conflicts with the Germans, whether it be in warning them from their 
own territory, or making warlike incursions on theirs." So far, then, from 
Caesar borrowing this word from the Germans, the above passages would 
prove the exact reverse; namely, that it was a nation which waged con- 
tinual warfare with the Germans, amongst whom he first found it; 
granting this to be the first time. Evidence therefore would point, rather 
to a Celtic, than a Teutonic origin. But the fact is, that in nothing more 
than in questions of this kind, ought we to be mindful of the maxim 
"Est quadam prodire tenus si non datur ultra." Was Mr. Home Took 
aware of the Greek Kuppov, which signified a chariot or car, when he 
referred all these words to the Anglo Saxon verb Cyr-an? 

It is an error into which we are perhaps too apt to fall, to suppose 
that, beyond the pale which separates the great families of language from 
each other, we must not expect to find the traces of affinity. We should 
rather remember that, even the great branches of language themselves 
are all related to one great prototype ; all ascend from one common stock ; 
and that, it is pure speculation to attempt to define the limits of that 
confusion, which was the sufficient cause of the dispersion of men at the 
tower of Babel. 



SUGGESTIVE OP ETYMONS. 25 

turn deserves another," &c. It also signified a choice, 
a 'will, because the thing, on which a choice was to 
be made, was turned over and over in the mind. A 
churn is a vessel in which milk is turned until the 
butter is separated. "A chair " says Home Took "is 
a species of seat," "turned about, and returned at 
pleasure." To set a door ajar, or, as it was formerly 
written, on cliar, is to place it so that it may be turned 
quite open, or returned shut. 

Some have supposed that the char fish is so called 
because it turns itself very rapidly in the water, though 
this, to be sure, might be said with equal truth of many 
other kinds of fish. 

It is not unworthy of notice, that the Latin word 
carruca, which would, perhaps, resemble a basket car- 
riage of the present day, was also a foreign word 
borrowed, probably, from the Celts or Gauls. The 
different uses, which this word has been made to serve, 
are also curious. If we are right in supposing the 
French word charrue, a plough, to be the word which 
the Romans altered into carruca, it is then difficult 
to see how it came to signify a carriage for ladies to 
ride in; and, probably, could we but know it, there 
is some little episode connected with this singular cir- 
cumstance, to account for it. 

But carruca in Domesday Book has a signification 
very different to the former, and tending rather to 
confirm the conjecture, we have hazarded as to its 
etymology. It seems to have been equivalent to the 
old ploughland. "The ploughland or carrucate 1 in 

1 Habet O VI. boves in dominio et villain aliain terram et II. 

boves. Supp. 224— Ibi est I. carruca G. D. 124. 

Les dames de Caen attelaient 8 betes a chacune de leurs charrues 
d' outre-mer: ainsi, elles avaient a Avelingues, 8 charrues chacune de 
8 bceufs. M. Delisle, 304, 204.— .£%. under the Normans, Note to p. 30. 

An oxgange, or an oxgate of land, was as much as an ox could till. 
In Domesday, from 10 to 15 acres make an oxgange ; therefore eight oxen 
would till from 80 to 120 acres; a quantity which may easily have cor- 
responded to the ploughland. 



26 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

Domesday is called 40, 60, 80, or 95 acres: and so 
in other documents we meet with ploughlands 60, 72, 
or 80 acres." — England under the Normans, p. 33. 

GLAIN. 

"And the Israelites glained of them by the way five thou- 
sand men, and pursued after them unto Gidom and slew two 
thousand men of them." — Judges xx. 45. 

Beyond that, the passage here presented to ns affords 
a sort of connecting link between our English verb 
glean, and the French verb glaner, I do not know 
that it contains anything worthy of notice in a philo- 
logical point of view. It does this, however, and therefore 
I thought it not unworthy of notice. In some parts 
of England the custom of picking up the loose ears 
of corn is not called gleaning, but leasing. In Shrop- 
shire, I believe, this is the case. It is a curious 
explanation which is given of this fact : curious because, 
if true, it shews how words, springing from the same 
source, and each flowing, as it were, for a long period 
through a separate channel, may, at length, so nearly 
converge as to become in a language strange to both, 
synonymous in meaning. 

Both glean and lease, are supposed to spring from 
the Gothic verb galisan ; the first form being per- 
petuated by some of the Teutonic tribes, the Visigoths, 
the Burgundians, and the Franks, 1 who, with the ex- 
ception of the Normans, were the last settlers in 
France ; and the second form lease, being perpetuated 
by the Saxons, who invaded England, and introduced it 
into this country. 

To lease 2 is an English verb because it was a 

1 See chapter on the "Norman Element." 

2 At the bottom of page 13G, "Diversions of Purley" there is the 
following note: 

" Leasing, i.e. loosing, i.e. picking up that which is loose, separate or 
detached from the sheaf." 

There is surely no occasion for such straining after an explanation, 
when Dr. Bosworth gives the verb Les-an, signifying even in the Saxon 
itself, be it observed, to gather, choose, lease. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 27 

Saxon one first; but, To glean which has almost sup- 
planted it, is, properly speaking, a French verb, though 
both are descendants from a common parent, trans- 
planted to different soils. How truly have they preserved 
the family likeness ! 

In the vision of Pierce Ploughman, when Perkyn 
determines to " apparaille " himself " in pilgrymes wise " 
and set out on a search after Truth, he says: 

" A busshel of bred corn 
Brynge uie therinnee 
For I wol sowe it myself, 
And sitlienes wol I wende 
To pilgrymage, as palmeres doon, 
Pardon for to have. 
And who so helpeth me to erie 
And sowen here er I wende, 
Shall have leve by our Lorde ! 
To lese here in hervest, 
And make hem murie thermyd, 
Maugree who so bi-gruceheth it." 

Pierce Ploughman, 3919. 



ROUME. 

This mode of spelling Boom appears to have been 
quite common at this time. It occurs very frequently, 
and is found also in Chaucer in his Legend of Ariadne. 

" For in the prison, here as he shall discend, 
Ye wote well, that the beast is in a place 
That is not derke, and hath roume and eke space 
To weld an axe or swerde, staffe or knife, 
So that me thinketh he should save his life, 
If that he be a man, he shall do so." 

Chaucer, 1995. 

The nearer we trace words to their origin, the 
nearer does their resemblance to that origin become. 
Our word Room is the Saxon Rum, connected with 
the verb Ry'man, to increase, to enlarge, from which, 
it is not improbable, that we derive the substantives 
Rim, Brim, Brink, Brow. 



28 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 



CARKEIS. 

I do not adduce this old form of spelling carcass 
as more correct than our own : for, indeed, the reverse 
is the case, but simply because it seems to say to us 
What am I? and what is my history? Let us try 
to find out. There is no doubt that it is the French 
word carcasse; but what is the French word carcasse? 
It is most probable a Latin compound (caro cassa) 
signifying useless flesh. 1 The French borrowed it, or 
manufactured it, from the Latin, and we have borrowed 
it from the French ; as has been the case with such a 
number of other words, now passing for English. 

SOWRE. 

"Who put darknes for light and light for darknesse, that 
put bitter for sweet and sweet for soure" — Isaiah v. 20. 

This method of spelling, instanced in the word sowre, 
is one which much prevailed at this time. Thus we find, 
Powre for Pour; Flowre for Flour; Towre for Tower, 
and many others of a similar kind. 

Let us just transpose the r and the w in the word 
here spelt sowre, and compare it, then, with the word 
printed in italics in the following quotation : 

"And I thanked hym tho, 
And siththe I hym tolde 
How that Feith neigh awey, 
And Spes his fellawe bothe, 
For sighte of that soriveful man 
That robbed was with theves." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 11542. 

Now, the metathesis, of which this is an example, 
is common enough. In fact, my reader has already 
had the opportunity of seeing one other instance of 

1 Lumine cassus, in Virgil, means a deceased person, one deprived of 
the light of day. Taken in this sense, carcass becomes peculiarly ex- 
pressive: caro cassa lumine, a body deprived of the light— of day, or 
of life. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 29 

it, in yelwe written for yellow, though, in that case, 
the consonant was I instead of r. Similarly 

Sparrow was written Sparwe. 
Arrow ,, „ Arwe. 
Sorrow „ „ Sorwe. 
&c. &c. 

Sowre has undergone another alteration, and is now 
written sour. Whence, then, do we derive all these 
words ? 

Sorrow ^ 

Sorry They are all derived from the Anglo 

Sore - Saxon Substantive and Adjective (for it 

Sour is both) Sar, a wound. 

Surly ) 

The word Sar, very variously written and pronounced, 
signified a wound, sore, pain, sorrow, grief. It is con- 
nected with the verb sargian, to give pain. 1 

1 Mr. Home Took refers this family of words to syrwan, which he 
says made for its past participle sorw ; how this could be I cannot under- 
stand, for neither syrw-an nor Sarg-ian could possibly make a past 
participle sorw, or anything the least resembling it. I do not think we are 
one iota nearer the root of a word, when we have traced it to a verb, than 
we are when we have traced it to a noun, which, in all probability, is the root 
of the verb itself. It is a great mistake to suppose that, nouns must 
be parts of verbs and formed from them ; because it is well-known that 
verbs in numberless cases are formed from nouns, which in fact, constitute, 
and are still clearly distinguished in, the roots of those verbs. On this 
point I will quote Sharon Turner's words in his history of the Anglo 
Saxons, vol. II. p. 424, he says : 

" Qan is the verb of motion to go, or the verb agan to possess, and 
-an seems to be (I) give, from unnan to give. Thus Deagan, Deagian to 
tinge, appears to be from Deag, a colour, and -an (I) give; Dsel-an, to 
divide; Dsel-an, I give a part. Blostmian to blossom, is Blostmagan, to 
have a flower : By an, to inhabit, is By'-agan, to have a habitation." 

Now let us apply this simple rule to the two verbs Syrwan and 
Sargian, in the first the root is Syrw, which is clearly nothing more or 
less than the substantive Syru, with the last vowel reduplicated for the 
sake of euphony, and signifies a snare; giving us, as we should expect 
when made into a verb by the addition of the verbal termination -an, the 
verb Syrwan, to ensnare, to entrap, but not to vex or molest, as Mr. 
Took affirms. 

In the second verb Sargian, the root is clearly sar, a wound, a sore, 
and thus, when made into a verb by the addition of the verbal termination, 



dU EARLIER FORMS OP SPELLING 

Thus, one little Saxon monosyllable have we managed 
to split np into no less than four words, distinct from 
each other, both in spelling and signification; though, 
it must not be forgotten, that the form corresponding 
to sorry is also found in the Anglo Saxon. 

Sorrow and sorry, had formerly a meaning somewhat 
different to that which they have now acquired; that 
is, they had reference more to the outward sore on the 
body, than to its corroding effect on the mind. 

Thus, in an old translation of the New Testament 
we find the following passage : 

" And Ihesu enuyrownyde al Galilee, tecliynge in the syna- 
gogis of hem the gospel of the rewme, and heeling al sorewe, 
ether ache, and sikenesse in the peple." 

This meaning still survives in such expressions as 
"a sorry fellow," "a sorry case/' &c. 

SHAMEFASTNESSE. 

"Likewise also the women that they aray themselves in 
comely apparel, with shamefastnes and modesty, not with 
broyded haire, or gold, or pearles, or costly apparell." 

1 Tim. ii. 9. 

Skamefast is one of those words noticed by Dean 
Trench in his " English past and present." There will, 
therefore, be the less occasion for me to dwell on it, to 
any great length. I cannot do better, than quote what 
he says on this subject. 

" Least of all should our modern editors have given in to 
the corruption of shamefastness (1 Tim. n. 9.) and printed shame- 
facedness, as now they do, changing the word which meant once 

Agan, gives us Sargian, which signifies to have a wound, or sore, and, 
therefore, to be in pain or sorrow, which, when long continued, sours the 
temper of the unhappy sufferer. 

I think, however, Mr. Took may be right in supposing shreiv and 
shrewd to come from the verb Syrwan, as they easily may, though it 
requires a powerful stretch of imagination to believe, that they can come 
from the same root as sorrow, and its kindred words do. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 31 

a being established firmly and fast in honorable shame, into 
the mere wearing of the blush of shame upon the face; cf. 
JEcchis. xxvi. 15. 25; xxxn. 10; xli. 16,24; in all which passages 
the later editions have departed from that which ought to have 
been exemplary to them. Shamefast is one of a group and 
family of words, in all which fast constitutes the second syllable, 
thus steadfast [A. S. StaSolfaest] wordfast ; and those good old 
words rootfast and rootfastness, which we have now let go." 
Page 245, note. 

What says the great arbiter of our language on 
this point ? Surely his word must be law. Can it be 
that the word does not exist in his vocabulary! No, it 
is not to be found; the nearest approach is shamefaced, 
which he tells us, and truly too, is compounded of 
shame and face, and signifies "modest, bashful, easily- 
put out of countenance." Who, we would ask, is 
responsible for this gross perversion? It would be 
hard to saddle the great Doctor with it, though it 
is difficult to excuse him, for not having entered a 
protest against such a barbarism, even, while com- 
pelled, let us hope against his will, to sanction it. 
Little wonder the error should be perpetuated, since the 
great lexicographer, from whom there is no appeal to 
a higher tribunal, has affixed his imprimatur to it. 

QUADRIN. 

"And there came a certaine poore widow, and she threw 
in two mites which make a quadrin." — Mark xn. 42. 

I am not aware the quadrin was ever an English 
coin; nor does its appearance here, in an English 
translation, at all imply the necessity of thinking it was. 
The word in the original Greek was borrowed from the 
Romans, and the very fact of its appearance there affords 
an undesigned coincidence, that the Jews had at this 
time passed under the Roman yoke, and become to 
some extent familiarized with Roman coins, and Roman 
customs. 1 

1 Instances of Latin words taking a place in the Greek are by no 
means rare. 

ZovSdpiov is simply the Hellenistic form of the Latin sudarium, a 



32 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

The Roman Quadrans, or Teruncius, was equivalent 
to about three fourths of our farthing, but like our 
farthing signified, not only the fourth part of a coin 
(the As) but also, the fourth part of many other things. 1 
Indeed, this range of meanings, running, as it were, 
parallel to each other in the two languages, is rather 
striking. Thus in both was it used to signify a portion 
of land ; though, how much, it is not perhaps so easy 
to determine. In Domesday Book the Ferding is the 
Farthing, or fourth part of the Virgate. *' In Cornwall 
thirty acres made a farthing land, and nine farthings, 
on the average, made one Cornish acre 2 or entire field 
of 270 common acres. 5 ' — England under the Normans, 
p. 40. 

Indeed, in both languages, it is only the fourth 
part that is signified, without any reference to the thing 
to be divided. It is scarcely necessary to caution any- 
one against supposing, that the word Farthing is com- 
pounded of Fourth and thing. This would be, really, as 
great an error in itself, though not perhaps quite so 
serious in its results, as that we lately observed in 
the word shamefaced. The Saxon had not only the 
form which has given us farthing, but also, that which 
would have given us i&rthling ? 

As there was formerly a farthing 4 of land, as well 
as of money, so was there a minute of money, as well 
as a minute of time, and its value was about half 

towel ; so also Kevrvpi&v k?>ctos, S^vapiov are words of Latin origin, intro- 
duced by the Romans, and permanent witnesses of their dominion. 

1 As a coin it was the price of a bath among the Romans. No 
wonder they were so fond of bathing, when they could indulge in the 
luxury at so moderate a cost. 

2 "It must be borne in mind that in the Cornish Domesdays acra 
and ager mean a large field." — England wider the Normans. 

3 The Saxon word for farmer is Eorfcling, Earthling. 

4 In our antient Law Books, a Farding-deale of land means the fourth 
part of an acre, the rent of which was in Richard the Second's time so 
restrained, that for a Parding-deale of land they paid no more than one 
penny .— Walsingham, p. 270. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 33 

a farthing. The existence of the Anglo Saxon word mite 
forbids us supposing, that the English word mite is but 
a contraction of this old word minute. 

" Ihesu sitting agens the tresorie bihelde how the company 
castide money into the tresorie, and many riche men castiden 
manye thinges ; sotheli whanne o pore widewe hadde come, she 
sent twey Mynutis, that is a Farthing." — Mark xn. 42. 

MURTHERER. 

" But let none of you suffer as a murtherer, or as a thieffe, 
or an evill doer, or a busibody in other mens matters." 

1 Pet. iv. 15. 
11 For-thi God of his goodnesse 
The first gome (man) Adam 
Sette hym in solace, 
And in sovereign murthe ; 
And siththe he suffred hym synne, 
Sorwe to feel, 
To wite what well was 
Kyndeliche and know it." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, p. 382. 

"And as the weke (wick) and fir, 
Wol maken a warm flaumbe, (flame) 
For to murthen men myd, (with) 
That in the derke sitten : 
So wole Crist of his curteisie, 
And men cry hym mercy, 
Both forgive and forgete, (forget) 
And yet bidde (pray) for us 
To the Fader of hevene 
Forgifness to have." 

Ibid, p. 362. 

My reader will have the kindness to observe the 
words written in italics in the above passages. We have 
murtherer, murthe and murthen. How comes it to pass 
that there is such a hateful likeness between these 
words? Is it all chance; the casual effect of mere 
caprice, or is there something besides this; something 
which has its seat in the deep recesses of human feeling 
and human experience? Can these two children, like 
Cain and Abel, so different in disposition, claim descent 
from common parents? Apparently so. 

D 



34 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

" Mirth " says Home Took " that which dissipateth : 
viz. care, sorrow, melancholy, the third person sin- 
gular of the indicative of Myrran." — Div. Pur. p. 614. 

" The Anglo Saxons," he goes on to say, " likewise 
used morS, morSe, mors, (death), i. e. that which dis- 
sipateth (life understood) ; the third person of the 
same verb myrr-an, to mar, &c, and having itself the 
same meaning as mirth; but a different application 
and subandition. Hence from morSe, murther, the 
French meurtre, and the Latin mors." 

This explanation leaves but little to be said. Reason- 
ing from analogy, there is good ground for supposing 
that the Anglo Saxon words, myrS, mirth, mor$, death, 
and myr$ra, a murderer, are all connected with the verb 
myrr-an; whether or not, we agree with Mr. Home 
Took in supposing that morn, morning, morrow, 1 are 
to be referred to the same root. 

1 For the benefit of those who are not able to refer to the original, 
I have here inserted, without comment, what Mr. Home Took has 
written on the etymology of these words : 

"Morrow, therefore, and morn, the former being the past tense of 
myrr-an without the participial termination en; and the latter being 
the same past tense, with the addition of the participial termination en) 
have both the same meaning, viz., dissipated, dispersed. And, whenever 
either of these words is used by us, Clouds or Darkness are suband. 
Whose dispersion (for the time when they are dispersed) it expresses." 
" Myrrende is the regular present participle of myrr-an : for which we 
had formerly morewende. The present participial termination ende is 
in modern English, always converted to ing. Hence morewing, morwing, 
(and by an easy corruption) morning." — Div. Pur. p. 462. 
" And if the night, 
Have gathered aught of evil or concealed, 
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark ! " 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book 5. 
"To Flandres wol I go to-morwe at day, 
And come again as soon as ever I may: 
For which, my dere wif, I thee beseke 
To be to every wight buxom and meke, 
And for to kepe our good be curious, 
1 And honestly governe wel our hous." 

Cant. Tales. — The S7iipmannes > Tale. 
So murrain, Anglo Saxon myrring, is a Avasting [disease understood] 
which squanders or dissipates life. The formation of verbal substantives 
will be again alluded to in the Appendix. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 35 

Yet, from the way in which, murderer and mirth are 
at present spelt, who might not well be excused, if 
he failed to see any connection between the two ? There 
is, apparently, no cause to be assigned for the change, 
which has so altered their appearance beyond that slow 
and silent one, the course of time. 

• CHAPMAN. CHEAP. 

"Who have decreed this against Tyrus, (that crowneth 
men) whose marchants are princes? Whose chapmen are the 
nobles of the world?" — Isaiah xxiii. 8. 

If I am not mistaken, we have a word here which 
is fast becoming obsolete. True, on completing a 
bargain we receive, what is still called, in some parts 
of the country, "chapman luck/' yet the word is 
evidently not in vogue as it used to be, when the 
chapman, in Chaucer, tells his " wif," 

" Thee lacketh non array ne no vitaille ; 
Of silver in thy purse shalt thou not faille, 
And with that word his contour 1 dore he shette, 
And down he goth ; ne lenger wold he lette ; 
And hastily a masse was ther saide, 
And spedily the tables were ylaide, 
And to the dinner faste they hem spedde, 
And richly this monk the chapman fedde." 

Canterbury Tales, 13141, 
" Both my gees and my grys, 2 

His gadelynges 3 feccheth, 

I dare noght for fere of hem 

Fight ne chide. 

He borwed of me Bayard, 

He brought him horn nevere, 

Ne no ferthying therefore, 

For ought I koude plede. 

He maynteneth hise men, 

To murthere myne hewen 4 , 

Forstalleth my feires (fairs), 

1 What we now call a "counting-house," from the French comptoir ; 
from the Latin computare; whence also comes our word accounts, 
formerly spelled accompts. 

2 Pigs. 

3 Vagabonds. 
* Workmen. 



36 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

And fighteth in my chepyng, 
And breketh up my bernes 1 dore, 
And bereth awey my whete, 
And taketh me but a taille, 
For ten quarters of otes." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, p. 68. 

It is true, the family of words springing from the 
Anglo Saxon verb, cyp-an, To sell, has, in one form 
or another, taken too firm a hold on our language, 
ever to become totally extinct; yet, not only are some 
of these words falling into disuse, but others of them, 
though still used, have undergone material changes in 
their acquired meaning. We shall best understand this 
by following the radicle, from its earliest point of view. 

Cyp, in Anglo Saxon, signified a measure; thence, 
by the process of verbal formation, comes Cy'p-an, To 
sell, because things are sold by measure. From the 
verb thus formed, or perhaps from the original Cyp, 
the Saxons formed the following substantives : 

Cy'peman, A merchant, a chapman. 

Cy'ping, A bargaining. 

Cy'p-inga, A market, still surviving in Chipping-Nor- 

ton, Chipping-Barnard, Chippenham, and others. 
Cea'p, A bargain, anything for sale, a price; whence, 

from conjunction with Stow, (a place) comes 
Cea'p-stow, A market-place, which is still preserved in 

the name Chep-stowe; Cheap-side, East-cheap, &c, 

are all connected with this word. 

Now, where, I would ask, in this list, embodying 
the principal uses and meanings of cheap and its com- 
pounds, have we the faintest indication of its present 
signification? The truth is, that the word cheap has 
now lost nearly all trace of its original meaning, and, 
instead thereof, has assumed one which is but as an 
adjunct to its former self. Let us not forget that 
there were influences to account for this degradation. 



On the derivation of this word, see Appendix. 






SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 37 



Yet this change was not made all at once; the 
step was too great to be taken at a single bound; and, 
therefore, we find a kind of half-way house, where 
the word seems to have halted for a time in its down- 
ward course. 

Formerly, the expressions good-cheap and bad-cheap, 
were used to characterize good and bad bargains. 

" The sack that thou hast drunk me, would have bought 
me lights as good cheap, at the dearest chandlers in Europe." 

1st Part Henry 4th, Act 3, sc. 3. 

Bad-cheap is now entirely disused, and cheap has 
come to mean what was formerly meant by good-cheap. 

"Chap" is sometimes used for "chapman." The 
use of the verb Gy'pan still exists in the expression, 
" To chop and change" The verb To cheapen formerly 
signified, To attempt to buy, To bid for a thing. 

" She slipt sometimes to Mrs. Thody's, 
To cheapen tea." — Prior. 

BEAST. 

"Rejoice yee heauens: for the Lord hath done it: showt, 
ye lower parts of the earth : brast foorth into praises yee 
mountaines, O forest and every tree therein." — Isaiah xlvi. 23. 

It does not always follow, that the older form, or 
forms of a word, must necessarily be the more correct. 
An instance of this fact is afforded us by the above 
passage. Brast is certainly a very powerful word, but 
it is not so correct as our more modern and weaker 
word burst. The Anglo Saxon verb, of which they 
are only metathesized forms, is Berstan, To burst. But 
this liberty of metathesis is one extensively indulged in, 
not only in Anglo Saxon, but in language generally. 
There seems to be a peculiar pleasure in doing so, 
and, only by a knowledge of this habit, can the ety- 
mology of many words be explained. 

Our English word Burnt was formerly written 
Brent : and this earlier, and more correct form, is still 



38 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

retained in the words brown, brand, brandy, bronze, 
brunt. Brown is the colour produced by burning, and 
brunt is the burnt, and, therefore, the hot part of 
anything. 

" For smoke and smolder, 
Smyteth in hise eighen, 
Til he be bler-eighed. or blynd, 
And hoors in the throte, 
Cogheth, and curseth. 
That Crist gyve hem sorwe, 
That sholde bringe in bettre wode, 
Or blow it till it brende." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 12014. 

" The fires brenne upon the auter elere, 
YVhile Emelie was thus in hire praiere : 
But sodenly she saw a sight queinte. 1 
For right anon on of the fires queinte, 2 
And quiked again, and after that anon, 
The other fire was queinte, and all agon : 
And as it queinte it made a whisteling, 
As don these brondes 3 wet in hir brenning, 
And at the brondes end outran anon, 
As it were blody dropes many on: 
For which so sore agast was Emehe, 
That she was wel neigh mad, and gan to cry, 
For she ne wiste what it signified." 

Canterbury Tales, 2335. 
In like manner : 

Bird was formerly written Brid. 
Grass „ „ Gers. 

Cress „ „ Cerse or Kerse. 

Nostril „ „ Xeisthyrl. 

kc. occ. 

"Wisdom and wit now, 
Is noght worth a kerse, 
But if 4 it be carded with coveitise. 
As clotheres kemben hir wolle." 

n of Pierce Ploughman, 5628. 

The ignorant abuse of this harmless word kerse, or 
cress, in the above expression, which, in fact, is pretty 
much the same as " I don't care a straw," " nought worth 

: Vanished. 3 Torches. * Except. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 39 

a pease/' Spens. Sliep. Gal. Oct., has given rise to the 
corruption, now so common, "I don't care a curse," 
which has, in its turn, been also changed into the still 
more objectionable form, "I don't care a damn." 

But, to return to the word brast, it should be ob- 
served, that, though it cannot be called correct, there 
is the testimony of antiquity in its favour. 

" He buffeted the Bretoner 
About the chekes, 
That he looked like a lanterne, 
Al his lif after. 
He bette hem so bothe, 
He brast ner hire guttes." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 4147. 

So that, at this time, brast may be said to have 
been good English, because usuage had made it so. 
The time, however, was now fast approaching, when it 
was destined to lose its place, at least, in the written 
language. It still survives in the somewhat altered 
form brust, a great favourite with the agricultural la- 
bourers of some parts of England, though, entirely scouted 
by all those who wish to talk what they consider 
correct English. The word is, perhaps, worthy of a 
better place, like many others, which have retired to 
drag out the remainder of their days in the humble 
cottage of the peasant, previous to their total extinction, 
as members of the living tongue. But this we must expect. 
As in animated nature, the processes of secretion and 
excretion are continually going forward, so neither 
does language, the vehicle of thought, form an ex- 
ception to nature's general law. 

HURLYBURLY. 

"And as they( c ) cried and cast off their clothes and threw 
dust into the aire." 

" The chief captaine commanded him to be led into the 
castle, that he might know wherefore they cried so on him." 

( c ) " The description of a seditious hurlyburly, and of an hare-brained 
and mad multitude." 

Acts xxn. 23, 24, and note. 



40 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

The word hurlyburly, though now rarely met with, in 
this exact form at least, has been rendered immortal by 
a place in Shakespeare's celebrated Witches' scene. 

First Witch. " When shall we three meet again ? 
Second Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, 

When the battle 's lost and won. 
Third Witch. That will be ere th* set of sun." 

Had it not been for this passage, it is difficult to 
say what might have been the fate of the word. Mac- 
beth has snatched it from oblivion. 

It may be asked, what object I have in noticing 
this word? I have two reasons. The first is, to shew 
that so late as the beginning of the 17th century, the 
word was in familiar use; the second is, that it will 
afford me a pretext for enquiring into its real meaning 
and etymology, so far as this is possible. It will be 
observed, that the word does not occur in the text 
of the Breeches Bible, but in one of the marginal 1 
notes. This, however, does not in the least affect its 
authenticity. It is, indeed, possible, that a word in 
the original, which happened to have no exact counter- 
part in English, might be represented by some conven- 
tional compromise, some foreign word, or fictitious coinage, 
(as was probably the case with quadrin ;) but, in the 
case of an explanatory note, such a thing is, to say 
the least, highly improbable, if not altogether impossible. 
We may, then, I think, fairly conclude, that the word 
hurlyburly was at this time a perfectly familiar one. 

But what then is the meaning of the word? I 
mean its intrinsic meaning, for, of course, every one 
knows that, its acquired meaning is a tumult or riot. 

It is, in fact, a French word, which exists at this 
day, though, of course, spelt and pronounced somewhat 

1 It is not certain that these marginal notes, which are very 
copious, and, generally speaking, valuable, were not one of the offending 
causes, which ultimately prejudiced the minds of those who desired a 
new version. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 41 

differently in French, to what it is in English. It be- 
comes, therefore, a question of French, rather than 
English etymology. The French word is hurluberlue, 
which, it is necessary to observe, is not only a noun 
substantive, but also a noun adjective; in which latter 
sense, it signifies abruptly, bluntly. 

The following, then, I take to be the composition of 
the word : hurler, to howl, or roar ; and berlue, a glare. 

"Avoir la berlue," is to have a dimness of sight, 
to see double. Hence hurluberlue would appear, as 
composed of these elements, to mean a "hare-brained" 
fellow, to whom excitement, and tumults make things 
appear in one continual glare of bewilderment. It 
appears that the word, in passing over from the French, 
has undergone a material change. In the French it is 
used to designate a person, but when it becomes - Eng- 
lish, it designates, no longer a person, but a thing. 
It is not impossible, that it may have acquired its 
meaning from having, at first, signified collectively, 
what the French word does individually; meaning a 
collection of u harebrained" fellows ; and thence, as a 
natural consequence, a riot, or tumult. 

The French word hurler, and the English words 
howl, owl, and yell, are in all probability connected with 
the Anglo Saxon gyll-an, to yell. 

And now comes the question, has the word really 
seceded from our spoken language? We think not. 
There is a word sometimes met with on the outskirts 
of society, for the mention of which, it might be expected, 
I should make an apology, but which, however, I do 
not intend to do; a word, which, like a decayed old 
gentleman, who, is no longer able to keep up appear- 
ances, has slunk away into the filthy alleys and narrow 
bye-ways of society, there, if possible, to bury past re- 
collections, as well as to lose sight of present degradation. 
The word to which I refer is pronounced as though it 
were spelt hullabaloo. I do not recollect ever to have 



42 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

seen the word in print; though I have frequently 
heard it used. It would but little surprise me to be 
told, the word is merely slang, unworthy of consideration, 
and beneath the notice of good society and good 
breeding. There are some slang words, of which it 
may with absolute truth be affirmed, that they have 
no etymology whatever, and, were it desirable, it would 
be easy to afford examples enough. But, I think the 
word hullabaloo is not one of these words. I believe 
it to be a corruption of hurlyburly ; and in this 
conjecture I am, I think, strengthened by the existence 
in the Swedish tongue of the word hullerhuller, which, 
I am told, is used in precisely the same sense. 
If this conjecture is a correct one, then, the instance 
of corruption, which this word affords us, is only one 
more added to an already long list, imported like 
slippings, from abroad, and grafted on to the old 
stock at home : words, which analogy should teach 
us, must undergo serious modification, before they can 
become acclimatized. 

Not unfrequently, they become misshapen and twisted, 
in such a way, that their original meaning and derivation 
is, either obscured, or entirely lost. If men do not 
see the meaning of a strange word, which, either by 
custom or convention, or for convenience, they find 
themselves compelled to use, they will presently alter 
it, so as to bear a meaning, of their own, or if not 
a meaning, at least a national sound. Nor is this a 
trait by any means peculiar to one race of people : 
it is common to all nations, whose language admits 
into its texture words of foreign growth. We know 
it was so amongst both the Greeks and Romans; 
several instances of which have been already noticed by 
Dean Trench, in his " English, past and present/' 1 

1 "Thus fiovrvpov, from which, through the Latin, our 'butter' has 
descended to us, is borrowed, as Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxviii. 9.) tells us, 
from a Scythian word, now to us unknown ; yet, it is plain that the Greeks 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 43 

There is a strong intolerance of foreigners amongst us, 
and unless they quickly become naturalized, and settle 
down quietly, adopting our dress and customs, the proba- 
bility is, their sojourn will be short. We know to how 
great an extent certain writers of the present day, love to 
interlard their periods with French words, as though 
the English language were incapable of doing justice to 
their sentiments. Yet, how very few of these words 
ever get any farther than the page of the novelist, or 
succeed in making a permanent settlement amongst us. 
One cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable 
contrast, in this respect, which occurs between words 
which have now long since become part and parcel of 
our spoken, and written language, and words of recent 
importation. While, in the first instance, a word is 
intolerable until it can speak for itself, and lay aside 
its foreign costume ; as time advances, it looses its need 
of intrinsic meaning, lives no longer by sufferance, but, 
as it were, by virtue of citizenship, acquired through 
long continued residence amongst us. Such words are 
metcecs. 

If we detect a bright coin amongst the pieces 
that are paid us, our first impulse is carefully to ex- 
amine the stranger, and the date and impress it bears. 
Our friend, the grocer, would strike it down on his 
counter, while our other friend, the grazier, would toss it 
from his finger and thumb into the air, to ascertain 
its "ring." But if, instead of being a new coin, with 
a finely chiseled bust, and the date of last year struck 
upon it, it happen to be an old silver sixpence, bald 
and smooth with age, no curiosity is then excited, 
nor any doubts expressed of its being current money 



so shaped it, and spelt it, as to contain apparent allusion to cow and cheese ; 
there is in fiovrvpov an evident feeling after /3ovs and n-vpov." 

So bozra, meaning a citadel, in Hebrew, becomes fivp<ra, in Greek. 
The Syrian goddess Astarte becomes 'Aarpoapxn, the Star-ruler, &c. 

Page 230, note. 



44 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

with the merchants. And so it is with words, which 
are but the coins whereby the social intercourse, — the 
mental and intellectual bartering, — is carried on between 
man and man. After they have passed through their 
first ordeal, and lost a trifle of their metalic gloss, the 
distinctive marks, which were at first necessary to 
ensure their acceptance with the public, are gradually 
worn away, till at last, their very guarantee becomes 
their lack of all internal signification whatever. 

Nor is this the case with foreign words only; but, 
in the main, with words essentially English also, which, 
owing to their every day usage, have failed any longer 
to suggest the origin whence they sprang. The mean- 
ing of such words is felt, rather than understood. They 
have acquired a kind of passport of their own through 
the mind ; and the mind seems to grasp them rather 
by instinct and usage, than by any intellectual effort. 
In this respect, words are degraded from their honor- 
able office, as mediators between the mental faculties 
of the human brain, and become mere sounds, expres- 
sive of certain trains of ideas, but nothing farther : 
approaching, indeed, more nearly to the office and 
function of the calls of animals to each other, than 
the rational interchange of human thought. 

Take, for example, the numerous class of English 
nouns, derived directly from Anglo Saxon verbs, whether 
from the past participle, or from the present tense. 
Even in cases where both noun and verb are still in 
use, the connexion is frequently not recognized. How 
much less then, may we expect anything different in 
cases where the verb is no longer extant to suggest 
the derivation. It may be said, that words become so 
altered in their pronunciation and spelling, as to render 
this oversight excusable. Yet, this is but a lame excuse, 
as a little careful consideration could not fail to point 
out the relationship, wherever it exists. 

The connexion between the noun truth, and the verb, 
to trow ; between birth and to bear ; health and to heal, 



SUGGESTIVE OP ETYMONS. 45 

and very many other parallel instances, is snrely evident 
enough to any one, who gives any attention at all to 
the meaning of words. But when we come to such 
examples as girth, strength, month, meat, sloth, ruth, 
&c, the connexion is of a less obvious nature, and 
more frequently escapes detection. In many instances, 
the spelling alone is sufficient to disguise a word, and 
obscure its etymology, which a glance at the word as 
it was formerly spelt, could not fail immediately to 
indicate. Take, for instance, the word 

SLOUTHFUL. 

The connexion between the noun sloth and the verb 
(now almost obsolete) to slow, i. e., to retard, is not of 
the most patent character; yet, who could see the 
word as it is spelt in the following passage without at 
once observing it ? 

" A shuthful man maketh poor, but the hand of the diligent 
maketh rich." Prov. x. 4. 

In " Pierce Ploughman" the word is written sleuth. 1 

" Among these other of sloutes kind 
Which all labour set behinde, 
And hateth all besines ; 
There is yet one, which Idelnes 
Is cleped. 

In wynter doth he nought for cold, 
In summer may he nought for hete, 
So, whether that he frese or swete, 
Or be he in, or be he out, 
He woll ben ydell all about : 
For he ne woll no tranaile take 
To ride for his ladies sake." 

Oower, Lib. 3, Fol. 69,^.1. Col. 1. 

We may notice, by the way, that, from the time 
of Gower, till the beginning of the 17th century, the 
spelling of this word appears to have undergone but 
little change. 

The class of substantives formed on this model is 
a large and important one; too large, indeed, to admit 

1 The exact Anglo Saxon word SleuS. 



46 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

of mention here. There are, however, two or three I 
will take the liberty of considering, after we have done 
with that one already in hand. 

From the same root, the Anglo Saxon verb slawian, 
to be slow, from which we derive sloth, also come 

Slack -^ the second and third of which are bnt different 

Sloven 

Slut 



forms of the past participle; the first with 
the ending en, the second ed. From this it 
Slouch | would appear that they are both equally ap- 
Slough plicable to either males, or females. Both 
Slug -J Chaucer, and Gower, as in the quotation 
above, seem to apply the word slut, or sloute, as it was 
spelt, without any restriction to sex. 

The following passage seems peculiarly rich in these 
verbal nouns : 

" For the children are come to the birth, and there is not 
strength to bring foorth." — 2 Kings xxxix. 3. 

About the first there can be no difficulty. " Strong/' 
Mr. Took says, "is the past participle of the verb to 
string. A strong man, is a man well strung." 

" Orpheus, whose sweet harp so musically strong, 
Inticed trees and rocks to follow him along." 

Poly-olbion, Song 21. 
And of strength he says, 

" That which stringeth, or maketh one strong ; Anglo Saxon 
streng." l 

But what is foorth f Is this also a verbal substan- 
tive? Scarcely. The following is Mr. Took's opinion 
respecting it : 



1 It seems singular Mr. Home Took should have referred strength 
to streng, while there is the exact word in the Anglo Saxon; namely, 
strengg. For the Anglo Saxon streng, as a noun, is a string, a sinew, or 
chord ; and as an adjective, is the same as strong : but in neither acceptation 
does it signify strength. It is highly probable however that the verb 
Strang-ian, from which strength is derived, is formed from the substan- 
tive streng. See Appendix. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 47 

" From the Latin fores foris (out of doors) the French had 
fors, (their modern hors). 1 And, of the French fors, our ancestors 
(by their favourite pronunciation of th), made for<5, forth; as from 
the French asses, or assez, they made asseth, i. e., enough, 
sufficient." 

But this must be received with caution. For if, 
as Mr. Took asserts, our ancestors received it from the 
French, and, therefore, not before the middle of the 
eleventh century, how does he account for the presence 
of the word in Anglo Saxon writings, long previous to 
that period? The Anglo Saxon poet, Caedmon, died 
about the year a.d. 680, yet the word occurs in his 
metrical paraphrase. Aldred, about the year a.d. 900, 
translated the celebrated " Durham Book" into Anglo 
Saxon, and the word also is used by him. It cannot be 
pretended that these men borrowed the word from the 
French; so that Mr. Took's conjecture is scarcely tenable. 
And, even, if there were not proof of its previous exist- 
ence in the Anglo Saxon tongue, it would be very 
improbable, to say the least of it, that the Anglo Saxons 
should have adopted into their own language (for for5 
is strictly Anglo Saxon) a word from those, whose 
coming they had such bitter cause to remember. Besides 
asseth never was a Saxon word. It occurs in Chaucer, 
in the following passage : 

"And though on heapes that lye him by, 

Yet never shall make richesse, 

Asseth unto his greedinesse." 

Romaunt of the Rose, 5600. 
So that it is not a case in point. 

The derivation, then of foorth must be sought else- 
where. 

Now, strictly speaking, I do not see, that either 
Mr. Home Took, or any one else, is in any way bound, 

1 Well-known to us by the expression " hors de combat," i. e. disabled. 
The Fauxbourg, in Paris, is supposed to be compounded of the word 
fors. It was formerly written Forslourg, by Froissart and others ; " La 
Bourg de Four n'estoit anciennement qu' un Fauxbourg, qu' on appelloit en 
Savoyard Bourg de Feur, c' est a dire, Bourg de Dehors." 

Histoire de la Ville de Geneve. 

For a similar reason, perhaps part of the town of Reading is called 
the Forbery. 



18 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

while treating of the etymology of English words, to 
explain also the etymology of Anglo Saxon words. To 
pursue the subject beyond the Anglo Saxon, seems 
but a matter of curiosity, and one little likely to be 
attended with any beneficial results. However, as we 
have cast imputations on Mr. Took's etymology of the 
word forth, we are morally bound to offer another in 
its place. 

From the Anglo Saxon verb far-an, To go, we are 
supposed to derive the following words : 

1st. The verb to fare : " How does he fare ?" " Fare- 
well." 

2nd. The substantive fare, i. e., sustenance ; passage- 
money; and in compounds, where it has the force of 
going, as warfare, welfare, way fare. 

3rd. The substantive ford : a passage across a stream; 
and perhaps 

4th. The substantive fardel. 

Now, this verb faran makes the third person sin- 
gular of the indefinite tense, faerS, which seems to me, 
to bear a very close resemblance, in outward appearance, 
as well as internal signification, to the word, (call it 
what you will), for$. Forth, as derived from this source, 
would embody the signification of departure : and hence, 
would arise the meaning it now bears, of distance, or 
separation. 

" Look out of lond thou be not fore, 1 
And if such cause thou have that thee 
Behoveth to gone out of countree, 
Leave hole thine herte in hostage, 
Till thou again make thy passage; 
Think long to see the swete thing 
That hath thine herte in her keeping." 

Romaunt of the Rose, 2641. 
" Againe the knight the olde wife gan arise, 
And said ; Sir Knight, here forth lyeth no way." 

Chaucer, Wife of Bathes Tale. 

1 There is the following note on this very word : Div. Pur. p. 275, 
"fore, i. e., fors, or forth." [Bather the past participle of fare, To go— Ed.'] 



SUGGESTIVE OP ETYMONS. 49 

But this is only conjecture, and each one is at 
liberty to receive, or reject it, according to his own 
judgment. 1 I certainly know not to what other source 
we can look for an explanation of the word than this, 
be it right, or wrong. 

1 I have here subjoined some of the verbal nouns in th, the whole 
of which are to be found in Part II., Chapter 5, of the Diversions of 
Parley. 

Truth .—That which a man troweth, 3rd person singular indicative of 

treoioian, To trust, To trow. 
Filth: — Whatsoever Jileth; anciently used where we now use de- 

jileth. 
Wealth: — That which ewricheth: from Anglo Saxon Welegian, To 

enrich. 
Dearth: — That which dereth, hurtheth, or doth mischief; from Anglo 

Saxon derian, To injure. To dere, is an old English word: 

"No deuil shal you dere, 
Ne fere you in your doing." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, p. 140. 
Mirth: — Has been already noticed. 
Mouth, moth .—The same word differently spelt, and pronounced ; 

from metian, To eat. 
Tooth .—That which tuggeth ; from Anglo Saxon, teogan, To tug. 
Earth .—That which one ereth, or eareth ; i.e. plougheth : from Anglo 
Saxon erian, To plough. 

"He that erith, owith to ere in hope." 

1 Corinthies ch. ix. v. 10. 

I feel that I am doing a great injustice to Mr. Took's delightful 
volume, in thus hashing up a portion of it; were it not to show his 
theory to those who have not yet had the pleasure of making its ac- 
quaintance, I would not have done it. 

It has frequently struck me as very strange, that Mr. Took never, so 
far as I am aware, told us what was his opinion respecting the word 
cloth, or rather the Anglo Saxon word cla$. It is impossible that it can 
have escaped his attention. Cloth and clad, seem to connect themselves 
together in the mind, and mutually to suggest each other. 

Now, there seems very little doubt, that the Anglo Saxon adjective, 
claded, whence comes our word clad, is simply the past participle of 
hlid-an, To cover, and spelt gehlidad, or gehlyd : and clafc, in the same 
way, I think, must be only a more convenient form, sanctioned by 
custom and usage, of the word gehliS, a covering; evidently connected 
with the same verb, hlidan. Unfortunately, the verb hlidan would 

E 



50 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

BACKE. 

" The storke also, the heron after his kinde, and the lap- 
wing, and the backe." — Leviticus xi. 19. 

"At that day shall man cast away his silver idoles, and 
his golden idoles, to the moules, and to the baches." 

Isaiah n. 20. 

I think a person might well be excused, if he failed 
to recognize, in this so dusky and obscure a form, that 
night-loving little creature, the bat. He might na- 
turally be inclined to think, that this must surely be a 
typographical error of the printer, and no genuine 
English word. But this cannot be the case, since it 
occurs in three separate places, even if there were no 
other evidence to adduce in favour of its authenti- 
city. The following seems to be the true linage of 
the word : it springs from a Gothic word, vauJca, sig- 
nifying to loatch. 1 In Swedish, the corresponding word 
is natt-baka ; in Danish, bake; a form very closely re- 
sembling the above ; and in Scottish, or Lowland Scotch, 
it is bah. Now, it will be observed, by reference to 
the philological chart, which I have copied from Dr. 
Bosworth's Anglo Saxon Dictionary, and inserted at 
the end of this book, that all these languages, the 
Swedish, the Danish, and the Lowland Scotch, all 
belong to the Scandinavian branch; I do not know 
that the word occurs at all in the Anglo Saxon; at 
least, I have not observed it, if it does. It would 
appear, then, from this, that we have borrowed the 
word from the Scotch; or, otherwise, that it was in- 
troduced by the Danes. 

There is another word, very closely allied to the 

not form its 3rd person singular in $, like the other verbs. Nevertheless, 
it would be bold to assert that the terminal letter $ of all these nouns 
must necessarily be found in the verb. Cloth, if derived from this verb, 
would signify that which covereth. Hlo$a, in Anglo Saxon, signifies a 
blanket, or covering. The following words are referred by Mr. Took to 
this verb, hlidan: 

Lid. Blot. 

Lot. Glade. Cloud. 
1 For this explanation I am indebted to Thompson's "English 
Etymons" 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 51 

word hacke, both in pronunciation and spelling, which 
should not be overlooked. It is the word bivouac. 

At the bottom of page 573, "Diversions of Purley," 
there is the following editorial note : — 

[Qu. Bivouac, be-wachten? Ed.'] 

But, if the editor intends this as a suggestion for 
the Anglo Saxon root, it is unfortunate for his purpose, 
that no such word is to be found. It would, indeed, 
be far more convenient if both backe and bivouac could 
be traced to some such word in the Anglo Saxon, but 
the Anglo Saxon verb, which corresponds to the 
Gothic vauka, is wcecc-an, and in the form bewcecc-an, 
is not to be found. Indeed, it seems pretty certain, 
that we cannot trace either of these words to the Anglo 
Saxon. Wceccan has given us the verbs, To watch, 
and To wake ; l but we must not refer backe and bivouac 
to it also. 

The Gothic word vauk, became in the German, or 
Teutonic, bewach, and in the Swedish, bewak ; and the 
same word, when cast in a French mould, became bivouac. 
Thus did that smooth flowing language avoid the harsh 
guttural, and turn the word into its present form. 

Bivouac is not to be found in Dr. Johnson's Lexi- 
con; from which, it is fair to suppose, that the word 
is one of comparatively recent introduction from the 
French. What is the date of its introduction, indeed, 
I do not know, but it would probably be borrowed, 
either from French military dispatches, or, when our 
armies have been allied together. It should not be 
forgotten, that the strict meaning of bivouac, in military 
language, signifies the whole corps remaining on guard, 
or watch, during the night. 

But, to return to our starting point. Is this in- 
vestigation likely to throw any light on the meaning 
and origin of the modern word bat, whose etymology, 
says Johnson, is unknown? 

1 The " Waits" who sing at midnight on Christmas Eve witn such 
solemn effect, are no doubt so called from the fact of their keeping 
vigil or watch. 



52 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

To assert, that the modem word bat is only a cor- 
ruption, or abbreviation, of the older form, here 
presented to us, (backe) would be simply to affront 
my reader's judgment. I confess the leap is a large 
one; yet, it is a tempting one, too. Where, besides, 
can we look for a meaning, if it is not here? There 
are not wanting instances, where time has effected 
changes, in the spelling of words, as great as that 
we see here ; as in the case of fet for fetch. Still, I 
prefer leaving the question open to the discretion of 
each individual, rather than saddling myself with the 
responsibility of an assertion, which, in the end, may 
be proved groundless. 

But there is yet another word, in the latter quo- 
tation, not altogether undeserving of notice. "To the 
mowles and to the baches" we are told, shall men cast 
their idols. Glory to God, this prophecy is fast being 
fulfilled. The teachings of a divine philosophy are 
fast dispelling the dark shades of ignorance and super- 
stition : the bright Sun of the glorious Gospel is 
shedding his rays on every land, and before them 
the nations of the earth are, verily, casting "to the 
mowles and to the backes their idoles of silver, and 
their idoles of gold." Let us rejoice at this change, 
and endeavour, each of us, as far as in us lies, still 
further to promote it. It is wonderful, to think how 
much has been effected since the time we are now 
considering, when we ourselves had scarcely established 
our right to the Word of God, and when the trans- 
lators had to prosecute their arduous task in a foreign 
land. The work was at this time but commencing. 

MOULD. MOWLE. 

" Mould and malt," says Mr. Took, " though now dif- 
ferently pronounced, written, and applied by us, are one 
and the same French word, mouille, the past participle 
of the verb mouiller, To wet, or To moisten. Mouille, 
anglicized, becomes mouilled, mould ; then moult, 



SUGGESTIVE OP ETYMONS. 53 

mault, malt. Wetting, or moistening of the grain, is 
the first and necessary part in making what we there- 
fore well term malt." 

Now mould has come to be used in two different 
ways. We make use of it whether we talk of the 
"mould 1 of cheese/' or the "mould of a garden." 

It is at least doubtful, whether Mr. Took's ety- 
mology will hold in the first instance, that of mould ; 
in the second, that of malt, it certainly will not. 

For malt was a word well-known to our Saxon an- 
cestors, and, therefore, could not possibly have been 
borrowed from the French. 

It is difficult to understand, how Mr. Took could 
become guilty of the inconsistency he has here betrayed. 
In a former part of his delightful book, he animadverts 
with some severity on those etymologists, Johnson (his 
friend Johnson of course) among the rest, who think, 
that etymology consists in finding out parallel words 
to those they are considering in other languages. He 
argues in this way : that to trace a word up to its 
origin, or parent stock ; to shew how it came to be 
a word at all, and why, is a very different process 
from merely finding a parallel expression in another 
language. To do the latter, is, indeed, nothing more 
than reproducing the difficulty, without solving it; in 
short, to borrow a simile from the mathematician, to 
endeavour to find the value of two "unknowns" from 
two dependent equations. 

Every word in the French language needs the etymo- 
logist, as much as our own. When, therefore, Mr. Took 
refers us to the French verb mouiller, for the explanation 
of malt, and mould, how, to save himself from his own 
lash, would he propose to account for mouiller f He 
appears as far as ever from throwing any light on 
the subject. It is useless his going to the Latin for 
a solution, unless he can go to the Greek also, (for 

1 For the probable derivation of mould in this acceptation see Ap- 
pendix to this page. 



54 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

he is bound by bis own rules to trace every word, either 
to the Greek, or the northern tongues). Again, sup- 
posing he could have traced the origin of this word 
up to the Greek, or where else, I care not, how would 
he have accounted for the Anglo Saxon malt, or mealt, 
which, are the forms whence, beyond question, we 
derive the word malt ; and molde, which is as certainly 
our English word mould, the soil? This must surely 
be a difficulty. If these words had really descended 
to us from the French, their presence in the Anglo 
Saxon tongue would require an explanation that it 
would be difficult to give; for, of course, every one is 
aware that the Norman invasion caused the overthrow 
of the Anglo Saxon tongue. We certainly must not 
refer to the Norman-French for any solution of Saxon 
words, since the Teutonic element is pure in the latter, 
while in the former, as we well know, the Frankish 
dialect of the Teutonic family has undergone very con- 
siderable modifications, through its amalgamation with 
the Gallic Latin, which was spoken previous to the 
settlement of the Franks in northern France. 1 

It is evident, then, that we must not look to the 
French for any solution of the words malt and mould, 
if we still require any further than the Anglo Saxon 
malt and molde afford. Surely, it can be little short 
of heresy " grande nefas et morte piandum," to suppose, 
that to the Normans we are indebted for the cup of 
nut-brown ale, — the sparkling ealo$ 2 of our Saxon grand- 
fathers. 

1 See the chapter on "The Norman Element." 

2 It seems strange that while Mr. Took should have been content to 
trace the origin of malt no further than the French, he should, at the 
same time, have traced that which is made from malt, namely, ale, to 
an Anglo Saxon root. He says "ale, the Saxon alo$, is the third 
person singular of the indicative of selan, To set on fire, To inflame." 
He then quotes what Skinner, by whom this etymology had been sug- 
gested, says "ale may perhaps be derived from the Anglo Saxon selan, 
To set on fire, To inflame. Because, when of a more generous nature 
{such as was drunk by our ancestors) it elates the spirits, and warms 
the blood copiously, often a little too much." 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 55 

But what, it will be asked, do I propose to sub- 
stitute for Mr. Took's erroneous derivation; that is, 
what is the derivation of the Anglo Saxon words mealt 
and molde? 

Mealt, I think, is unquestionably derived from the 
Anglo Saxon verb meltan, To melt, To dissolve, To 
cook. The past tense of this verb gives us mealt, 
the precise word we seek; and the past participle is 
not materially different, except in the ending. It is 
molten. This is the only explanation I am aware of. 
If my reader thinks it sufficient, it is at his service. 
Truly, the process of malting barley, can scarcely be 
called melting it ; yet it may, without doing any great 
violence to our feelings, be said to be in a manner 
dissolved; or, we know not how far the process of 
drying the grain, after it has been steeped, may not 
have suggested, or answered to, the notion of cooking. 
I believe, indeed, there is a reason to be assigned for 
every word, could we but discover it. It may not, in 
every case, be such a reason as to satisfy the rigid 
demands of advanced science, and yet, may be quite suf- 
ficient to have justified the use of a word among our less 
enlightened ancestors. We know, that in scripture, also, 
there are many expressions used, as it were, out of 
condescension to the limited, and, in some cases, erro- 
neous notions of ancient times. But, if it be somewhat 
of a strain to explain malt, by reference to the verb 
meltan, To melt; how is it possible to explain mould? 
The difficulty is one of still greater dimensions, 1 nor 

1 The following quotation is extracted from the preface to Thompson's 
"English Etymons." I do not place any great reliance on it, on account 
of its extreme vagueness, but give it, as a suggestion, for what it is worth. 
" To these suggestions, on a very intricate subject, may be added the Gothic 
mi, mid, med, apparently from the Gothic I, at, in, or between. They 
correspond with the Latin medius, and medium, a, mean, a half; and, 
besides, denoted a division and a particle, a mite, or mote ; whence Gothic 
meida and meisa ; Latin meto, to cut, divide, mow, mutilate. Compounded 
with dal, dial, a share, it produced the Gothic medal, the mid deal, or 
middle. Mid, med,, with the Gothic la (from laga, To lay, or place), became 



56 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

do I think there is much good to be derived from specula- 
tions, for they can be but little better, on such recondite 
points as these. It may be some consolation to those 
who so bitterly complain of the injustice, not -to say 
the national folly, of keeping on the malt tax, while 
flimsy French wines are admitted duty free, to know, 
that even our Saxon ancestors were saddled with 
the mealtgescot or malt tax. Surely, then, it is time 
it was repealed. 

But, it will be asked what has this discussion to do 
with the silky little mole, as it is now spelt? It has a 
good deal, inasmuch, as mole is but a mutilated abbre- 
viation of the provincial mouldiwarp, the Anglo Saxon 
molde-wyrp, the mould caster. From this Anglo Saxon 
word molde, then, it seems we derive the following words : 

Mould, the soil, and 

Mole, by contraction for mouldwarp, the animal which 
burrows under the ground. 

In this case, it would appear that the older reading, 
mowle, is not more correct than our modern mole, which 
is itself but an euphonious contraction, even if it can 
be called that. 

midla ; Swedish, media, to put between. Media was contracted into mella, 
which produced the Gothic mal, mel ; Swedish mal ; Saxon mal, mcel ; 
Teutonic mal, mahl, applied in different ways, but invariably denoting 
intervention, or division. Mal was thus a portion of speech, a word, a 
harangue, a notice, a cause, or action at law, a division of time or space, 
an interstice, a fragment, a crumb, a spot, speck, painting, delineation, 
writing, mark, sign, a piece of ground set apart or enclosed, a fixed 
hour for eating, a moiety of the produce of the soil, as rent, a con- 
vention, a contribution, salary, measure, boundary. Our meal, time of 
eating ; meal, grain reduced to particles, small : mold, dust ; mole, a spot 
on the skin ; mall, a public walk, the boundary of a town ; Scotch, mail, 
rent ; and, finally, from the Gothic mals, a fixed period for contribution, 
which has the same root with Teutonic mas, a measure, we have 
Lammas and Christmas : although the word has been generally confounded 
with mass, a religious ceremony. Our medley, things intermingled, is the 
Gothic medal, which contracted into mille, Swedish mellan, is our mell, 
a mixture." p. 24. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 57 

But what does the provincial moiddiwarp express? 
For a lengthy word, without an understood signification, 
is certainly worse than a short one ? Mouldiwarp, how- 
ever, is not one of these. It is compounded of the 
word mould, which we have just been considering, and 
part of the Anglo-Saxon verb weorpan, to throw or cast ; 
and the word mouldwarp, as thus compounded, expresses 
that habit of the animal, whereby alone its presence is 
detected : namely, that of throwing up to the surface the 
mould of its excavation. 

Nor is this the only word we derive from this Anglo 
Saxon verb, weorjpan, To cast. The following words spring 
from it : 

Warp, — 1st, The gritty, pulverized matter, thrown up on 
the banks of rivers. 2nd, The thread connected with 
the shuttle, which crosses, or is thrown across, the 
woof. 3rd, The verb to warp} which perhaps, from 
the metaphor of a river, warping up its banks, and so 
perverting its course; perhaps, from the warp, in weav- 
ing, being turned across, (though I think the former 
is the more probable) comes to signify the act of per- 
verting, or biassing the opinion. 

CLOUT. 

" Thou wast not salted with salt, nor swaddled in clouts." 

Ezehiel xvi. 4. 

Respecting the word clout, Mr. Home Took says : 

"Clout, )as well as cleeve, cleft, cliff, clift, and cloven, 
Clough, fare the past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb 
cliofian, 2 To cleave." 

And he afterwards proceeds to shew how they 
assumed their present form. 

" Clouve, clough, cleaved, or divided into small pieces. 
Clouved, clow'd, clout." 

1 "Not warped by passion, awu by rumour, 
Not grave thro 5 pride, nor gay thro' folly, 
An equal mixture of good humour, 
And sensible soft melancholy."— Swift. 
2 I cannot but think the more correct form would be cleofan, or 
clufan, for according to Dr. Bosworth, there are three verbs, all closely 
resembling each other in form, though quite distinct in meaning. 



58 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

But, surely, all this is not only extremely fanciful, 
but quite unnecessary, since both dough and clut a (clout) 
are themselves Anglo Saxon words. The process of their 
formation was not conducted in English, but in Anglo 
Saxon. The words have descended to us from the pure 
Anglo Saxon, and have not been manufactured by us from 
an English verb, as Mr. Took's reasoning would lead 
us to suppose. I should not find fault with him for 
referring the Anglo Saxon words dough and dut (u 
long) to the verb cliofian, 1 but an endeavour to shew 
how the words were forged with English hammers, is, at 
the best, but an ingenious fiction. 

Philologists are by no means unanimous as to the 
exact meaning of the word dout. 

Mr. Thomas Wright, in his glossary to the Vision 
and Creed of Pierce Ploughman, says " douten (Anglo 
Saxon) to patch, mend/' and refers us for an example 
of this meaning, to the following passage : 

"And I shall apparaile me" quod Perkyn 
In Pilgryme's wise, 
And wende with yow I will, 
Till we fynde Truthe; 
And cast on my clothes 
Y-clouted and hole, 
My cokeres 2 and my eoffes, 
For cold of my nailes." 

Line 3909. 
But Mr. Took also refers to this passage in support 
of his meaning of torn. In this dilemma, what must 

1 There is first clufan, or cleofan, which makes the past participle clofen, 
To cleave, To split; from which and not from cliofian, are derived the 
following words : cleaver, clevage, cleft, cliff, claw, the divided or cloven 
foot, and clover (from its divided leaf). 

Secondly; clifian, (otherwise spelt cleofian and cliofian) which makes 
the past tense, clifode, and past participle, clifod, an active verb, To 
fasten, or slide, a thing whence, probably, are derived clay, clog, clot, 
and glue, perhaps. 

Thirdly : clifan, perfect cliif, and past participle clifen, a neuter verb, 
To adhere, To cleave to. 

Perhaps club, an apportioning or dividing of expenditure, and dough 
a vale between two cliffs, are derived from the first of these verbs, clufan. 

2 A stocking or glove. Prom the Saxon cocer, a quiver, a case. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 59 

we do? Let us judge for ourselves of its meaning, by 
the following passages, in which it occurs : 

The first I have given in extenso, not only because 
of the instance it affords of the verbal use of clout, but 
because of the very graphic description of avarice. It 
occurs in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose. 

"Another image set saw I, 

Next covetise fast by, 

And she was cleped 1 Avarice ; 

Full foul in painting was that vice, 

Full sad and caitife was she eke, 

And also grene as any leke, 

So evil hewed was her colour, 

She seemed to have lived in langour, 

She was like thing for hunger dead, 

That lad her life onely by bread 

Kneden with eisell 2 strong and egre 

And thereto she was leane and megre, 

And she was clad full poorely 

All in an old torn courtpys 

As she were all with dogges torn 

And both behind and eke beforne 

Clouted was she beggerly." 

Line 137. 
u She fayned her, as that she must gon 

There as ye wote, that euery wight hath nede, 

And whan she of this byl hath taken hede, 

She rent it all to chutes and at last, 

Into the preuy sothly she it cast." 

Marchaunt's Tale. 
" She ne had on but a straight old sacke 

And many a chut on it there stack, 

This was her cote and her mantele, 

No more was there never a dele, 

To cloath her with; 

Romaunt of the Rose, line 458. 
" His garment, nought but many ragged clouts 

With thornes together pind and patched was." 

Faerie Queene, Bit. 1, cant. 9, st. 36. 

TRADE. 

" Teach a child in the trade of his way, and when he is 
old he shall not depart from it." — Proverbs xxu. G. 

1 Called. 2 Vinegar. 3 A short cloak. 



60 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

Transpose the first clause, and how naturally would 
it read, "Teach a child in the way of his trade, &c." 
It would amount simply to the trite and well-worn 
maxim of the world, and would require no explanation 
whatever. But, as the passage at present stands, it 
seems as though the cart were put before the horse. Yet, 
is it so really, or is it only time which has occasioned 
the confusion of terms ? What is the word Trade ? 
whence comes it, and what does it mean? How many 
of all the thousands, who are busily engaged, from 
Monday morning to Saturday night, in some of the 
almost numberless ramifications of that social necessity, 
ever find leisure to think of its meaning? 

Trade ! what a curious word ! yet how suggestive ! — of 
the dock wharf, and the warehouse, the smooth counter, 
and the dingy counting-house, and many a merchant- 
man besides, whose gallant form is well-known on the 
sea's highway. 

But this is the modern meaning, and one which 
the word has, comparatively speaking, only recently 
obtained. Trade, indeed, is simply the Anglo Saxon 
trod, a path, a track, a pace, and is connected with 
the Anglo Saxon verb tredan, to tread. 

But, even in English, the word had only this mean- 
ing for a length of time, as the following passages will 
shew: 

" They say they con to heaven the high way, 
But by my soul I dare undersaye, 
They never sette foote in that same troad, 
But balk the right way and strayen abroad." 

Shepheard's Calendar. 
"As shepheards curre that in dark eveninges shade 
Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade." 

Faerie Queene, Bk. 2, cant. 6, st. 39. 

Thus it appears, that trade, for a length of time, 
signified nothing more than a path, or tract. Indeed, 
the word still survives in some parts with this meaning, 
though, in a somewhat different form. It is not long ago 
since I heard the following expression, which struck 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 61 

me at the time as somewhat unusual, for I did not 
recollect ever to have heard the word made use of 
before. 

"I wish these garden trods of mine were weeded." 1 

I am inclined to think that the word craft supplied 
the place of trade till recently. How then would this 
change take place ? A man's trade, that is, his path 
in life, his calling, or occupation, was formerly called 
his craft. St. Paul we are told in my old Bible, (with 
reverence be it said) abode with Priscilla and Aquila, 
" because hee was of the same craft, (for their craft 
was to make tents)." 

Graft has somehow got into disgrace, as well as 
crafty, and trade* now supplies the place of the former, 
and skilfid of the latter. It is difficult to assign a reason ; 
nor should one be expected, for all the alterations which 
take place in words, from time to time. Words, like 
the coats we wear, are subject to a kind of fashionable 
caprice, which clips, and trims, and shapes the words 
we speak at pleasure. 

There are two other words, which, because they 
are of analogeous formation to the one we have just 
been considering, I will take the liberty to notice. 
They are 

PLANT AND VENT. 

"I have digged and drunke up the waters of others, and 
with the plant of my feet have I dried all the floods closed 
in. — 2 Kings xix. 24. 

1 As this was a colloquial observation, I make no apology for its 
homely character. Indeed, I cannot but think, that shippings from the 
living stock are far more trustworthy and valuable, as indications of the 
state of the language, than written extracts. 

2 I am aware that some Etymologists prefer pointing to the Italian 
tratta, (from the Latin tracto) as the immediate source whence we 
derive the word trade; and, though this may be true of its commercial 
acceptation, yet it seems at least probable, that the above is the real 
origin of the word in its domestic, or civil acceptation, of a man's oc- 
cupation in life. 



62 EARLIER FORMS OP SPELLING 

In this acceptation, the noun plant has become ob- 
solete, and I question if, in having dropped it, our 
language has not sustained a loss which is still felt. 

Went, as a verbal noun, though it is no longer 
in use, in this exact form, has bequeathed to us the 
noun, vent, a passage. 

"And through the long experience of his dayes, 
Which had in many fortunes tossed beene, 
And passed through many perillous assayes 
He knew the diverse went of mortal wayes, 
And in the mindes of men had great insight." 

Faerie Queene, Bk. 6, cant. 6, st. 3. 

But I find by my list, that I am rapidly exhausting 
the stock of words, which are to find a place under 
the heading of the present chapter. I have but two, 
or three more to consider; nor is there any reason 
why they should delay us long, for they almost speak 
for themselves. 

CEEEPLE. 

" And a certaine man which was a creeple from his mothers 
wombe, was carried, whom they layd daity at the gate of the 
Temple, called Beautiful, to ask almes of them that entred into 
the Temple." — Acts in. 2. 

Dr. Johnson hints, that the modern word cripple 
is, perhaps, only an altered form of creeple, from the 
verb To creep, though he does not bring forward any 
quotations in support of his suggestion. Does the above 
passage supply the missing link, which is necessary to 
make Dr. Johnson's suggestion anything more than a 
suggestion ? What think you, reader ? Or 1 do you 
think the bait is too artificial, and prefer looking to 

1 By some Etymologists, Thompson amongst them, cripple is referred 
to the Anglo Saxon crypel. But this is simply absurd, for, however 
the words cripple and crypel may resemble each other, they are quite 
distinct in meaning. Crypel, the Anglo Saxon word, is a den or cave; 
also spelt cryfele, and I cannot help thinking, though I have no proof 
of it, connected with the Greek winr™, To hide, and thence, with our 
English word Crypt. (Kpv(f>fj i secretly). 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 63 

Saxon crepel? But, remember, the Anglo Saxon word 
crepel, means a little creeper, or crawfish, and creqpere 
is really the Saxon word which corresponds to our word 
cripple. This being the case, I think we shall not be 
guilty of a great error, if we accept Dr. Johnson's sug- 
gestion, now that we have fortified him with a quotation. 

BANKET. 

" And his sonnes w#nt and banketed in their houses, every 
one his day, and sent and called their three sisters, to eate 
and drinke with them." — Job i. 4. 

The word banket does not appear quite well pleased 
at being aroused from its long slumber, to display its 
quaint costume of the 16th century. But it is not 
mere curiosity that invokes the shade. 

Banket differs from the more modern banquet, inas- 
much as, while the former is cast in a Teutonic, or 
German mould, the latter bears evident tokens of 
French influence; it is, in short, nothing but a pure 
French word. Of course, both spring from the same 
Teutonic root, bank, Anglo Saxon bene, a bench, a 
table ; and the changes, that have taken place, are 
only such as may be attributed to the national pro- 
nunciation in each case. 

FET. 

" For as long as the sonne of Ishai liueth upon the earth, 
thou shalt not be stablished, nor thy kingdome : wherefore, now 
send and fet him unto me, for he shall surely die." 

1 Samuel xx. 31. 

The word fet } which occurs in this passage, and 
elsewhere, has now fallen into such entire disuse, as 
scarcely any longer to suggest a meaning to the mind, 
and almost to make us doubt its right to the pa- 
rentage of our modern word fetch. How many times 
might the latter form occur to us without once exciting 
our curiosity; yet, who could meet with the former, 
without immediately desiring to know more about it ? 



64 EARLIER FORMS OF SPELLING 

" Fetch/' says Mr. Took, " (Anglo Saxon faec) is 
the past tense and past participle of fecc-an, fraude 
acquirere, adducere, To obtain by stealth." 

Does Mr. Took mean by this, to say, that faec is 
the past tense and past participle of the Anglo Saxon 
verb feccan, To fetch? Scarcely, I should think; for 
he must have known that feahte is the past tense of 
that verb. Fsec is no more its past tense, or past 
participle, than )?3ec is of the verb feccan, To thatch, 
or thack. Verbal substantives they may be, yet there 
is a looseness in Mr. Took's way of putting it, that 
is very liable to mislead. And again, the Anglo Saxon 
word fcec does not, in either of its meanings, corres- 
pond with, however much it may outwardly resemble, 
our word fetch. It signifies, firstly, an interval of 
space, or time; secondly, suspicion. How the verb 
fecc-an may be connected with either of these, is 
perhaps too subtle a question for speculation. 1 

Let us first consider fetch as a verb, and this, 
perhaps, will facilitate the consideration of it as a sub- 
stantive. 

" And cart-sadle the commissarie, 
Oure cart shal he lede 
And fecchen us vitailles 
At fornicatores." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, 1242. 

Here we have a very early form of the word, 
scarcely differing from the original Saxon. 

" Thaune sikede 2 Sathan 
And seide to hem alle, 
Swich a light ayeins our leve 
Lazar out fette ; 
Care and encombraunce 
Is comen to us alle ! 
If this kyng come in, 
Mankynde wole he fecche, 
And lede it ther hym 3 liketh, 
And lightliche me bynde." 

Ibid, 12608. 

1 Facen, deceit, fraud, is more likely to be the root of feccan, To fetch. 

2 Sighed. 

3 It liketh him. 



SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 65 

In this passage, fecche would certainly convey the 
notion of deceit, as also in the following, in which 
Christ is represented as addressing Lucifer : 

" Thow fettest inyne in my place 
Ageins alle reson, 
Falsliche and felonliche; 
Good feith me it taughte, 
To recovere hem thorugk raunson, 
And by no reson ellis. 
So that thorugh gile thow gete, 
Thorugh grace it is y-wonne. 
Thow Lucifer in liknesse 
Of a luther' addere 
Getest by gile 
Tho 2 that God lovede." 

Ibid, 12783. 

It would seem, then, that our more modern form, 
fetch, is a sort of compromise between the two, fecche 
and fet? 

The substantive, fetch, which still retains the ele- 
ment, and gives the notion, of deceit, and cunning, is 
extant in such passages as the following : 

" Yet since so obstinate grew their desire, 
On a new fetch (t'accord them) he relide." 

Godfrey of Bulloigne, cant 5, st. 72. 

" With this fetch he laughs at the trick he has played me." 

Stillingfieet. 
" It is a fetch of wit 
You laying these slight sullies on my son, 
As t' were a thing a little soiled i' th' working." 

Hamlet. 

1 Wicked. 

2 Those. 

3 The following parts of this verb occur in the vision and creed of 
""Pierce Ploughman:" 

Present Singular. I fecche, Thou fettest. 

Perfect Singular. Fet, fette ; this form also occurs in the Breeches 

Bible. 
Perfect Plural. Fetten. 
Participle Past. Fet. 



66 FORMS OF SPELLING SUGGESTIVE OF ETYMONS. 

The following are words of analogous formation : 
Thack f ^ rom ^ n S^° Saxon pecc-an. 



Lack 
Latch 
Clutch 



Latch from Anglo Saxon Lsecc-an, Gelseccan. 



S ' \ I ^ rom Anglo Saxon Speccan. 



" The indifferent pronunciation of ch, or cJe, pervades the 
whole Anglo-Saxon language." — Div. Pur. p. 567. 

Of course many other examples, besides those above, 
might be quoted. 



CHAPTER IV. 



WORDS ALTEE THEIE MEANING. 

Not only do words alter as to their external ap- 
pearance, from time to time, bnt the signification they 
bear is likewise modified. While, on the one hand, 
words, which were originally nsed to designate an effect, 
come, insensibly, to denote the cause; so, on the other, 
words, which at first signified the cause, have, through 
the lapse of years, come to designate the effect. Words 
have a metaphysical history, and cannot be rightly con- 
sidered apart from moral and metaphysical causes. So 
intimately, indeed, are they connected with the ma- 
chinery of the mind, that they -may be truly considered 
to form an index of its working; — a mirror, in which 
are reflected those ever-changing images, with which it 
is conversant, whether considered as animating the in- 
dividual, or as they are developed in the more collective 
form of public opinion. 

Indeed, the ceconomy of words is not a simple sub- 
ject, nor one to be comprehended within moderate limits. 
I shall, therefore, content myself with quoting the ex- 
amples which the Breeches' Bible has afforded me, and 
leave my reader himself to follow out the conclusions 
to which they point. 

CAUSE. 

" And the title of his cause was written above, that King 
of the Jews." — Mark xv. 26. 

The primary meaning of causa 1 among the Romans, 
whence, I need not say, comes the English word cause, 

1 The root, I supppose, of causor, accuso, causidicus, 8fc. 



68 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

was " a suite at law, a judicial process." From this its 
original, it soon acquired the additional signification of 
an indictment or accusation. The use, therefore, of 
cause in the above sense would be quite correct ; though 
it is needless to point out, that it no longer bears this 
meaning with us. 

The following passage is strongly illustrative of the 
different meanings the same word, used by different 
people at different times, may come to bear. 

CRIME. 

" Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought 
no crime of such things as I supposed." — Acts xxv. 18. 

A crime is now understood to mean an offence, 
whether against the law of God, or man. But this 
meaning is one arrived at by the method of induction, 
and not an intrinsic one. Now, amongst the Greeks, 
back to whom we must trace this word, it simply ex- 
pressed the completion of a judicial process; namely, 
a sentence, whether of condemnation, or acquittal. The 
Romans borrowed the word from the Greeks, but mo- 
dified its meaning; so that with them it no longer 
signified a sentence, or verdict simply, but, inasmuch 
as persons are not generally brought to trial, unless 
there be fair grounds of suspicion gn which to found 
an accusation, it came to signify the accusation, or 
charge of an offence: and thence, the offence itself, 
by a logic somewhat similar to that contained in the 
old adage, "give a dog a bad name and hang him." 

But it will be observed, that in the above passage 
the word crime has the more classic meaning of an 
accusation, and not the superinduced signification — a 
prejudiced one truly — of the offence itself. In this sense 
the word is now obsolete; yet we have evidence here, 
that it has only become so during the last two cen- 
turies and a half. It appears, then, that this word, 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 69 

originally springing from Greece, centuries before the 
commencement of the Christian Era, survives to the 
present day; that during its existence it has been a 
Greek, a Latin, and an English word; and has gener- 
ally borne a different meaning in each. Amongst the 
Greeks it signified a judgment ; amongst the Latins an 
accusation ; and, finally, amongst ourselves, the offence 
itself. What a strange process is here; what curi- 
ous reasoning ! We start from the verdict, next we 
come to the accusation, and finally to the crime, 
which ought to be the root, and origin of all. Yet, 
so it is. 



DISEASE. 

" Thy daughter is dead, why diseasest thou the master any 
further?"— Mar k v. 35. 

This use of the verb, To disease, is somewhat 
strange to us. Yet, it is not uninstructive, inasmuch 
as it reveals the kind of reasoning whereby the word 
has come to receive its present signification. 

As a verb, disease is now but rarely used, and, 
when it is, its meaning is quite different from that 
which it originally possessed. The past participle, 
diseased, is still common enough, to intimate a con- 
dition of ill health*, but with this sense only. Now, 
it will be observed, from its use in the above passage, 
that, formerly, its meaning was simply the reverse of 
ease, comfort, or convenience; and thus it seems to 
have been used, so late as the middle of the 17th 
century, if not later. 

" Though great light be insufferable to our eyes, the 
highest degree of darkness does not at all disease them." 1 

Locke. 



1 This observation is certainly incorrect; for intense darkness is ex- 
tremely painful to the eyes. 



70 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

Disease, then, up to this time, signified that con- 
dition of restlessness, which would be caused by trouble, 
sorrow, or sickness of any kind : bnt with reference 
only to the result, and not to the producing cause. 
Now, however, the word, instead of designating the 
effect, has been transferred to denote the cause, and 
is used, I believe solely, to express a malady in its 
substantival use; and to affect with a malady in its 
verbal use. 

DISDAINE. 



"And when the ten heard it, they begun to disdains at 
James and John." — Mark x. 41. 

" Therefore some disdained amongst themselves, and said, &c." 

Ibid xiii. 4. 

These passages, in our present version, read as follows : 

" And when the ten heard it, they began to be much dis- 
pleased with James and Jolin." 

"And there were some that had indignation within them- 
selves, and said, &C." 1 

The following passage illustrates the meaning this 
word bore in Chaucer's time: 

"The second cause that ought to make a man to have dis- 
deigne of sinne is this, that, as saith Seint Peter, whoso doth 
sinne is thral to sinne, and sinne putteth a man in gret thral- 
dom. Certes, wel ought a man have disdeigne of sinne, and 
withdraw him fro that thraldom and vilany." 

Persones Tale, Cant. Tales. 

What, then, are the changes time has wrought in 
the meaning of this word? It would appear, that the 
tendency has been to weaken its original force and 
vigour. What its meaning is now we all know well 
enough. By disdain, we understand rather that con- 
tempt and scorn for a thing, — that loathing, somewhat 

1 It should be observed that the word in the original, in both pass- 
nges, is the same: namely, kyavaKTeZv, to be grieved, or indignant, which 
expresses a more powerful emotion than that of mere contempt or scorn. 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 71 

akin to pride, whether proper or improper, — which 
cannot stoop, — than real anger, and indignation, which, 
resulting from supposed sufficient causes, produces dis- 
pleasure and aversion to a particular person, or thing. 
So that, if this be true, the morale of the word has 
suffered depreciation, and the word itself, by this very- 
depreciation, become better adapted to a more artificial 
state of society. 

The use of pestilences for wicked men, though it 
sounds somewhat uncouth in our modern ears, has, 
nevertheless, a moral force, and vigour about it, which 
cannot be misunderstood. 

PASSE. BASE. 

In that most touching of all farewell sermons, which 
the Apostle St. Paul preached to his converts, at 
Miletum, previous to his final departure, after telling 
them, that bonds, and afflictions awaited him in every 
city, he goes on to say " But I passe not at all, neither 
is my life deare unto myself, so that I may fulfil my 
course with joy i" thereby intimating, as the Greek has 
it, "I make no account of any thing ;" and our own 
version "But none of these things move me/ 5 

How entirely has this word pass changed its mean- 
ing : even passion, though its old meaning is still, and 
may it long be, consecrated to us by our Church 
Liturgy, has in the familiar intercourse of society re- 
linquished its original signification of suffering, and, 
in its place, come to denote, rather the effect of that 
suffering, or emotion, as it is manifested by external 
signs. We still talk of "the passions of the mind;" 
of " a passive verb ;" or, of " sl person remaining passive ;" 
where the old meaning still survives; yet passion no 
longer means suffering, but rather intemperate anger; 
and a passionate man, not a suffering man, but one 
who can ill abide suffering. 

There is another instance afforded us in the ancient 



7:2 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

use of the word base, which strongly illustrates the 
power of the mind in changing the signification of 
words. 

" Which remembered us in our base estate, for his mercy 
endureth for ever." — Psalm cxxxvi. 23. 

And again, in that beautiful metaphor of old age: 

" And when the doors shall be shut without by the base 
sound of the grinding." — Ecclesiastes xn. 4. 

From these passages, it is plain to see, that, at 
this time, the adjective base was merely one of position, 
and had not as yet received the inferential meaning 
of turpitude, which is now attached to it. This was 
the work of time. It was only by degrees, that men 
came to the conclusion, that what is low and degraded 
generally, though not universally, indicates a depraved 
morality. Yet, this has been done effectually enough at 
last. As an adjective, base may be said to have lost 
its simple original meaning (for the two, •'. e., the old and 
the new, are to a certain degree antagonistic), and have 
adopted in its place a purely inferential, and moral one. 
A man formerly might be base, either through misfortune, 
or fault ; he can now only be so through the latter. 

BENEFICIALL. 

"Bring my soule out of prison, that I may praise thy 
Name : then shall the righteous come about me, when thou art 
beneficiall unto me." — Psalm cxlii. 7. 

The use of beneficiall for merciful is somewhat strange 
to us, and does not exactly correspond to that which 
obtains in the present day. 

COMMODITIE. 

" Cause not your commoditie to bee evill spoken of." 

Romans xiii. 16. 
Modern reading : 

" Let not then your good 1 be evill spoken of." 

1 The word in the original, thus rendered, is to dtyadov. 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 73 



TERME. 

" Thou hast caused thy daies to draw neere ; thou art 
come unto thy terme" 

These are the words used by the prophet Ezekiel 
when uttering his curse against the city of Jerusalem. 

There is little need for any remark on the use of 
term, in this passage. My reader will see for himself, 
that terme, at this time, was equivalent to end ; or, as 
we should now say, termination. The word, terme, has 
lost this meaning — its true, and more correct meaning 
of limit — and is now used to indicate, not the termi- 
nation of a thing, but rather its duration. 



INCONTINENTLY. 

" And al the devils besought him saying, send us into the 
swine, that we may enter into them. 

"And incontinently Jesus gave them leave." — Mark v. 12, 13. 

Incontinently has here the force of immediately. In 
this sense I do not recollect ever to have heard it used ; 
although, it still finds a place in our dictionaries. It 
is very rarely met with, now, with any other meaning 
than that of intemperance, or licentiousness; probably, 
this change has only recently taken place. 

IMPROVE. 

" Be instant in season and out of season : improoue, 1 rebuke, 
exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. — 2 Tim. iv. 2. 

Perhaps, it would be difficult to find a word whose 
meaning has so entirely changed as the above ; for it has 
not merely adopted some inferential, or side meaning, 

1 The word in the original is eXey&u. 



74 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

which is pardonable, and easy to be accounted for, but 
it has come, at length, to signify as nearly the reverse 
of what it formerly did, as possible. 1 

And, although it is not of so great importance in 
practice, that is, experience, what the meaning of a word 
may be, or whether that meaning be the correct one, 
so long as it is uniformly one, and the same ; yet, when 
the word occurs in old writings, with a meaning very 
different from its present one, it is then the real difficulty 
arises. Take for instance the following passage : 

" Now, Sir, young Fortinbras, 

Of unimproved mettle, hot and full, 

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, 

Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes, 

For food and diet to some enterprise, 

That hath a stomach in it." 

Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1. 

Listen to what poor Shakespeare's commentators say. 
"Warburton takes unimproved to mean *' unrefined ; " 
Edwards, "improved," and Johnson, with the approbation 
of Malone, says Mr. Tooke, thinks it means' "not regu- 
lated, nor guided by knowledge, or experience," whereas, 
it simply means u unimpeached," or " unblamable." Oh, 
save me from my friends ! I notice this case of mis- 
interpretation, not so much for its own intrinsic value, 
as because it affords a striking instance of the errors 
the best are liable to fall into, when they dare to ignore 

1 It is perhaps mere useless speculation to try and trace this word 
beyond the Latin improbo, to the Greek Trpe-rreiv, to be fit, or becoming : 
sufficient for our present purpose, which is rather that of ascertaining the 
acquired, than the etymological meaning, that it is derived to us directly 
from the French verb improuver, to disapprove, to blame, a meaning which 
is still retained. 

"Elles croient que le corps et le sang sont vraiment distribues a ceux 
qui mangent; et improuvent ceux qui enseignent le contraire." 

Bossuet des Variat des JEglises, Prot. 

" La bourgeoisie de Geneve a droit de faire de representations dans 
toutes les occasions, oil elle croit les loix lesees, et ou elle improuve la 
conduite de ses magistrats."— Rousseau, vol. II. p. 440. 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. iO 

the past, and consult the feelings, and dictates of the 
present only. Words are far too capricious to be safely- 
investigated by any other guide, than that of experience. 
Here, even the etymologist finds himself at fault, and 
though, perhaps he may be able to indicate which way the 
fox ought to have gone, yet it by no means follows that 
his suggestions are to be relied on. It is unnecessary to 
point out that, instead of improve in the passage which 
suggested these remarks, our present Version reads re- 
prove. The difference is only that of a syllable, yet 
how strange it would sound now to hear the old reading 
" improve, rebuke, exhort." 

The following appears the rationale of this singular 
change in the meaning of the verb To improve. 

That which is faulty, or vicious, requires to be 
reproved. (I use the words advisedly, with their present 
meaning) ; and that which is reproved, ought, if the 
reproof have its legitimate effect, to be improved. Here 
again, is the same transposition of cause, and effect; 
and here, again, is afforded us a glimpse at that myste- 
rious logic, which is ever at work in the secret labora- 
tory of human thought, and human feeling; which, 
snatching the very words out of our mouths, and re- 
casting them in a new model, reproduces them again, 
after a time, in such a shape that they can scarcely be 
recognised. 1 

1 I am not sure that the verb, To reprove, as used by our Bible 
Translators, in the passage "reprove, rebuke, exhort," had the same meaning 
as that we now attach to it. I am rather inclined to think the animus of the 
word, as they used it, was conviction; which implies, not only impeachment, 
but also that bringing of a man's offence home to him, so as to cause him 
serious apprehension of punishment, and thus lay him under a greater moral 
obligation to reform his life. What is the difference in our day, between a 
rebuke and a reproof? I doubt if there be any attached difference. Yet, we 
are bound to accept one of two conclusions : either, that our Bible Trans- 
lators rendered two essentially different words in the original, e\ey£ov and 
e-mTifirja-ov (the former, signifying to convince, the latter, literally to set an 
additional price on a thing, and thence, to rebuke), by synonymous words in 
English ; or else, that the words they used, at the time they used them, were 
not synonymous ; which appears to me far the more rational of the two. 



76 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 



PROFIT. 

" Now the childe Samuel profited, and grew, and was in 
favor with the Lord, and also with men," — 1 Samuel n. 26. 

The verb, to profit, is not now used in the sense of 
thriving, as it appears by the above passage, and many 
others that I could mention, to have been formerly. 

AVOYDED. 

The employment of this word in the sense of empty- 
ing is somewhat curious. I have, unfortunately, taken 
down the reference to the passage incorrectly, and must 
therefore, ask my reader to trust to my fidelity. It is 
but a fragment, but it is sufficient to shew in what 
sense the word was formerly used. 

" When the priests avoyded the ashes." 

Void is still used with this meaning of making 
empty ; but not, so far as I am aware, avoid, 

WANT. 

" If he be lost, and want, thy life shall go for his life." 

1 Kings xx. 39. 

In the sense in which this word is here used, it is 
now rarely found ; still, there are a few homely phrases 
where it survives, such for instance as "it wants ten 
minutes to twelve ;" that is "there are wanting ten 
minutes from twelve o'clock." 

There is another remarkable usage of the verb To want, 
which we seem to have entirely lost. It occurs in 
Clement Ellis's " Character of the true Gentleman." 

" He scorns and is ashamed of nothing but sin. He 
lives in the world as one that intends to shame the world out of 
love with itself, and he is, therefore, singular in all his actions, not 
because he affects (loves) to be so, but because he cannot meet 
with company like himself, to make him otherwise. In a word, he 
is such, that (could we want him) it were pity but that he were in 
heaven ; and yet, I pity not much his continuance here, because 
he is already so much in heaven to himself." 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 77 

What interpretation are we to put upon want in this 
passage? The sense would seem capable of but oue. 
It appears to be equivalent to To spare, To do without. 
And there is another passage, only a little further on, 
which seems to confirm this. 

" Honours lie civilly accepts when paid him, but seldom 
challenges when delayed or with-held ; so far I mean, as they 
concern his person, not his office. For though it be one honour 
to deserve, yet it is another contentedly to want them." 

Clement Ellis lived about the middle of the 17th 
century, or pretty nearly a century after the Genevan 
Version was published. It appears, then, that since the 
beginning of the 17th century the verb, To want, has 
borne no less than three different meanings. 

1st, with the sense of To he wanting. 

2nd, „ „ To spare or do without. 

3rd, „ „ In our own time, To desire. 1 

With respect to the verbal formation of want, it will 
be prudent to speak cautiously. 

The substantive want, and wand, we know well enough 
to be the past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb 
wanian, To diminish, To take away, with an active signi- 
fication : then, To wane, To decrease, To decay, with a 



1 The Latin verb, desidero, with its derivative, desiderium, seems to 
afford a somewhat parallel instance to the above. The word desiderium was 
originally an astronomical term, used to denote the absence of a particular 
star from a constellation, without implying any notion of regret for that 
absence. Yet, this word, desiderium, being a compound Latin word, and, 
therefore, as a word, incapable of being traced further back, is the root of the 
French desire, and our English desire. But, long previous to this, it had 
lost its original meaning, even amongst the Eomans themselves, and signified, 
first regret, and thence, as a natural consequence, since we always more or 
less desire that for which we feel regret, it came to mean desire or longing 
for a thing ; so that the changes, this word has undergone, somewhat re- 
semble those of our English verb To want. 



78 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

neuter signification: as also, from the same verb, with 
the prefix ge, ge-wanian, comes the noun adjective gaunt. 1 

But whence comes the verb To want? 

There seems no alternative but to suppose it is 
formed from the noun substantive, by simply prefixing 
the English verbal particle, (if so I may be permitted to 
call it) to, of which more hereafter. 

If such be its formation, whether regular or irregular, 
let us not at present decide, we cannot be surprised, 
that its meaning has varied from time to time ; changing 
rather in accordance with the prevailing under-current 
of feeling, than with any rule to be found in the nature 
of things. 

Yet, how many verbs there may be, which are as 
loose in their construction as this, we shall probably 
never know. There are two, which occur to me at this 
time. They are the verbs To twist, and To tilt. 2 

The former is supposed to be the contracted form 
of twiced, twic'd. or, as it was formerly written, twis'd, 
whence twist, and the verb To twist. The latter is 
"the past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb tilian, 5 
i. e. To raise, or To lift up. To till the ground, is 
to raise it, To turn it up. Atilt is well said of a 
vessel that is raised up; but we ought to say To till, 
and not to tilt a vessel." 

This concluding remark of Mr. Tooke's is, I appre- 
hend, equally applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the case 
we are considering : namely, the verb, To want. But, 
to pursue this question further, will be to anticipate 
the subject of a future chapter. 



1 So that from the same part of the same verb we obtain, first a noun 
substantive want ; second, a noun adjective gaunt ; and third, as we shall 
presently see, in all probability, the verb to want. See JDiv. Pur. p. 351. 

2 Perhaps the verb To hoist is another. 

3 Whence comes the verb To till, and the substantive tilth. 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 79 

MOE. MOST. 

" O Lord, my God, thou hast made thy wonderful! workes 
so many, that none can count in order to thee thy thoughts 
towards us : I would declare and speak of them, but they are 
moe than I am able to express." — Psalm xl. 5. 

Mr. Home Tooke's hypothesis of the meaning, and 
origin of more is ingenious, but, we fear, untenable. 

In order that I may not misconstrue Mr. Tooke's 
meaning he shall speak for himself: 

" Though there appears to be, there is in reality no irre- 
gularity in much, more, most; nor, indeed, is there any such 
thing as capricious irregularity in any part of language. In 
the Anglo Saxon the verb ma'wan, metere, (To cut), makes 
regularly the prseterperfect mow, or mowe, (as the praeterperfect 
of slag an is sloh), and the past participle, mow en, or Saxon 
meoiven, by the addition of the participial termination en to 
the praeterperfect. Omit the participial termination en (which 
omission was, and still is, a common practice through the 
whole language, with the Anglo Saxon writers, the old English 
writers, and the moderns 1 ), and there will remain Saxon mowe, 
or English mow ; which gives us the Anglo Saxon moive, and our 
modern English word mow; which words mean simply, — that 
which is mowed, or mown. And as the hay, &c, which was mown, 
was put together in a heap ; hence figuratively, mowe was 
used in Anglo Saxon to denote any heap : although, in modern 
English, we now confine the application of it to country pro- 
duce, such as hay-mow, barley-mow, &c. This participle or sub- 
stantive, (call it which you please, for, however classed, it is 
still the same word, and has the same signification), mow, or 
heap, was pronounced (and therefore written) with some variety 
ma, mce, mo, mowe, mow, which regularly compared, give 

Saxon, ma ma-er, (i. e. S. mare) ma-est (i. e. S. moest). 

Saxon, moe mce-er, (i. e. S. mcere) mce-est (i. e. S. mcest). 

Saxon, mowe...mow-er, (i. e. S. more) mow-est (i. e. S. most). 

Englishmo mo-er, (i. e.E. more) mo-est (i. e. E. most)." 

But there are serious objections to this process. For, 
in the first place, the past participle of ma'wan is not 

1 I very much doubt, whether what Mr. Tooke conceives to be fie 
past participle divested of the participial termination (without which it is 
not a participle at all) is, in reality, anything more than the root of the 
verb. But Mr. Tooke was not in the habit of looking on verbs in this 
light. 



80 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

meoioen, but simply ma' wen, 1 just as the past participle 
of sa'wan, To sow, is sa'wen; consequently, if we do 
reject the participial termination en, we have, not mowe, 
but maw. 2 But this objection is trivial compared with 
the next : namely, that ma and mos never did signify 
a heap in the Saxon, or, indeed, anything else, besides 
a comparative degree, which we render in English by 
the word more. So that, in fact, Mr. Tooke starts by 
comparing a word, which, whatever be its positive, is 
already in the comparative degree. Had he been con- 
tent with comparing the substantive mowe, and then 
tried to persuade us that ma, mas, (for mo has no ex- 
istence in the Saxon) are contracted forms of this 
comparative, we should still have dissented, though we 
should not have felt that so great an outrage on com- 
mon sense had been committed. No doubt most 
(Saxon mo3st) is the superlative of the comparative more, 
but what the positive may have been, we dare not 
hazard a conjecture. Mr. Tooke goes on to say, 
though I warn my reader to use him cautiously : 

"Mo (mowe, acervus, heap), which was constantly 
used by all our old English authors, has with the 
moderns given place to much: z which has not (as Ju- 



1 Perhaps I ought to state my authority for this assertion : it is Dr. 
Bosworth's Anglo Saxon Dictionary. 

2 We ought to recollect too, that mead, Saxon meed, is, as Mr. Tooke 
himself asserts, p. 585, a verbal substantive, probably of irregular formation 
from the same past participle ; as also seed, Saxon seed, from the past par- 
ticiple sa'wen, of the verb sa'wan To sow ; deed, Saxon doed, from don To 
do, &c. Mowe may perhaps be the root of the verb ma'w-an, To mow, or 
cut; but I do not see how it can be formed from the past participle: 
otherwise, where must we look for the root of the verb ? 

3 If by mo Mr. Tooke means the adjective or adverb more, he is 
certainly wrong. 

How would it do to substitute much for mo in the following passage ? 
"There was also a reve, and a millere, 
A sompnour (apparitor) and a pardoner also, 
A manciple, (baker) and myself, ther n'ere no mo." 

Prologue to Cant. Tales. 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 81 

nius, Wormius, and Skinner imagined of Miekle) been 
borrowed from fieyakos, bnt is merely the diminutive 
of mo." Let this stand for what it is worth, I do not 
think it is much. 

The fancied victories of a too presumptive boldness 
are, in my mind, more to be dreaded, than either the 
apathy of ignorance, or the humbler successes of a more 
diffident enquiry. Men, who will see difficulties nowhere, 
and even concoct a solution, if they cannot find one, are 
dangerous partisans, and render but poor service to the 
cause they espouse ; inasmuch as, by so doing, they lay 
it open to an undiscriminating suspicion. He who at- 
tempts to explain, by some conceit of his own, secrets 
which lie buried far too deep in the tomb of the past 
ever to be perfectly investigated now, should, at least, 
do so in a spirit of modesty, and not attempt to dogmatise 
over the faith of other men. 

If in the Sanscrit malia, great, the Persian mih, and 
the Gothic mar> much, we see, or fancy we see, the 
word more 1 dimly foreshadowed, then it becomes idle to 
listen to arguments, which endeavour to fix the date 
of the word no farther back, than its fancied invention 
by the Saxons. Favete Unguis. 



MOST. 

"Yea they worship beasts also, which are their most 
enemies, and which are the worst, if they be compared unto 
others, because they have none understanding." 

Wisdom of Salomon. 

"Yet peinted was a little furthermore, 
How Athalante hunted the wild bore, 
And Meleagre and many other mo 
For which Diane wrought hem care and wo." 

Knighte's Tale. 
1 Thompson in. his " English Etymons," says, more is contracted from 
the Gothic marer, as Gothic mar, mer, signified much or great, and cor- 
responds with Persian mihtar, from mih, Sanscrit maha great. 



82 WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 

We have here an instance afforded us of the obsolete 
use of most, in the sense of greatest; but until we are 
better acquainted with the nature and origin of the 
words much, more, and most, we cannot with propriety- 
discuss the question, as to whether this use be correct. 
Dr. Johnson tells us, that in his time, most, in the 
sense of greatest, had already become obsolete. 

But, although most is no longer used in this par- 
ticular sense, its meaning and name are still so ill 
denned, that, perhaps, a word or two respecting them 
may not be out out of place. 

If we say 
" A man is capable of doing most good in his own sphere ; " 

we mean by "most good," the "largest amount of 
good;" in which case, most appears to be a noun sub- 
stantive, and expresses, as an accident of its nature, 
the quantity, or degree to which that amount reaches. 
Again : 

" Men are ready enough to acknowledge that virtue is most 
efficacious to secure true happiness." 

In this case, what can we call most but a noun 
adjective ? 
Again : 

" He executed the business most faithfully." 

"What noun is most in this case? It is not a noun 
substantive, nor a noun adjective. Indeed, it is difficult 
to say what it is, unless it be a noun adverb. " Faith- 
fully" expresses the manner in which the business was 
executed ; and as most qualifies faithfully, it ought, per- 
haps, rather to share the nature of that adverb. 

Indeed, most, as well as much, and more, seem to 
be reflexive words, on which are reflected the nature 
of other words, be they substantive, adverb, or adjective, 
expressed, or understood, to which they happen to be 
joined. I do not know that we ought to wonder at this. 
Indeed, the more we meditate on the accidental condi- 



WORDS ALTER THEIR MEANING. 83 

tion — I had almost said the nature — of our language — 
how by artificial, and in some cases jejune expedients, 
we have sought to remedy the losses it has sustained, 
the less will the ambiguous, and irregular use of such 
words as the above excite our surprise. We must re- 
collect, that previous to the Norman invasion, the Saxon 
language was like a stately bark, fully manned, and amply 
equiped, the discipline good, and containing every resource 
within itself. Thus did it encounter the tempest which 
burst over it from the south. But when again, the storm 
cloud had dispersed, and the bright blue sky appeared, our 
gallant bark lay motionless on the water, all her delicate 
tracery gone, her masts splintered and broken, her sails 
tattered and torn, — a mere wreck of her former self. In 
a future chapter, I hope to investigate more closely the 
real amount of damage done, and the manner in which 
this damage has been repaired. 



CHAPTER V. 



OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS, AND FORMS OF 
WORDS. 



That department of Philology, whose concern it is 
that defunct members of Language shall not he entirely 
forgotten, presents, it may be, as few claims as any to 
real interest and utility. Still, however, there is a sort of 
idle curiosity, (pretty much akin, I suppose, to that which 
is felt in walking through a museum), which is not 
unpleasantly gratified by gazing for a while on those 
antiquated forms, which were once living words in the 
mouths of those who spoke them. They have passed 
away from this earthly stage ; their influence is no longer 
felt, and other men, and other words, have risen to supply 
their places. Still, though it may be little more than 
mere curiosity, which prompts us to dig up, and examine 
those old fossils, so far, that is, as any direct benefit is 
to be expected from them ; yet, in as much as, while we 
are thus engaged, we are simultaneously, and almost un- 
consciously, forming an approximate estimate of the drift 
of our language during the last three centuries, the 
investigatiou, as to its result, cannot be called, altogether 
idle. It is only by thus casting the log, while our ship 
is in motion, that we can obtain a true estimate of her 
progress. 

I have met with comparatively few words in the 
Breeches Bible, which, since the time it was written, 
namely, the middle of the sixteenth century, have en- 
tirely died out. They are scarcely worthy of a separate 
chapter; nevertheless, to avoid confusion, I have given 



OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS. 85 

them a small corner to themselves. In the next chap- 
ter I have recorded such obsolete forms of past tenses, 
and past Participles of Verbs, as seemed worthy of 
notice. 

FRAILES. 

" Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred cakes, and 
two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five mea- 
sures of parched corn, and an hundred frailes of raisins, and two 
hundred of figs, and laded them on asses." — 4 Samuel xxv. 18. 

Dr. Johnson gives two meanings to the word frail. 
It would not therefore be obsolete in his time. He says 
it means : 

Firstly : A basket made of rushes. 
Secondly: A rush for weaving baskets. 

In the following passage, we meet with the word 
in an earlier form: 

Piers the Plowman is invited by Conscience to dine 
with Clergie, where he meets Pacience. While the learned 
Doctour, however, was eating "mortrews 1 and potages," 
and drinking wine, Pacience and Piers are put to be 
macches "at the side bord," where, as they can get 

1 A kind of soup : — 

" He eet manye sondry metes, 
Mortrews and puddynges, 
"Wombe-cloutes and wild brawen, 
And egges y-fryed with grece." 
"Wombe-cloutes" was what we now call tripe. 

The Coke, in the prologue to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," is thus 
described : 

"A Coke they hadden with them for the nones, 
To boile the chickenes and the marie (marrow) bones, 
And poudre marchant, tart and galingale, 
"Wei coude he know a draught of London ale. 
He coude roste and seethe and broile and frie, 
Making mortrewes, and wel bake a pie. 
But gret harme was it, as it thoughte me, 
That on his shinne a mormal (cancer) had he 
For blanc manger that made with the best." 






86 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

nothing to eat, they pass the time by conversing on 
the disgusting behaviour of the Doctour. At length 
Pacience says, 

" For now he hath dronken so depe, 
He wole devyne soone, 
And preven (prove) it by hir Pocalips 
And passion of Seint Avereys, 
That neither bacon ne braun, 
Blanemanger 1 ne mortrews, 
Is neither fissh nor flesshe, 
But fode for a penaunt 2 
And thanne shall he testify to the Trinite, 
And take his felawe to witnesse, 
What he fond (found) in a frayel, 
After a freres lyvyng ; 
And but he first lyre be lesyng, 
Leve (believe) me nevere after." 

Lines 8215. 

On the word fray el, Mr. Thomas Wright has the 
following note : 

" The second Trinity Coll. M.S. has " in a forell." Forel is 
the Low-Latin forellus, a bag, sack, or purse: &frayel (fraellum) 
was a little wicker basket, such as were used for carrying figs 
or grapes." 

In the Romance of " Richard Coeur de Lyon," the 
Word also occurs. 

"Richard annswereth with herte free 
Of froyt there is gret plente ; 
Fyggys, raysyns, in fray el, 
And notes (nuts) may serve us fol wel." 

It is hardly necessary to observe, that fraile is only 
a contraction of the earlier form, frayel. 



1 It must not be supposed, that the blanemanger, here mentioned, bore 
any resemblance to the viand which now bears that name. There is a 
receipt for making it in MS. Harl. n. 4016. One of the components is 
" the brawne of a capon, tesed small." 

2 I know not what this means, unless it be " one who is doing penance." 
This satire on the luxurious life of the clergy is very severe. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 87 



FARDEL. 

"And after those days we trussed up our fardels, and went 
up to Hierusalein." — Acts xxi. 15. 

In our authorized version this passage reads as 
follows : 

" And after those days we took up our carriages and went 
up to Jerusalem." 

I should much like to know, which of these two ren- 
derings is most intelligible to the general reader of the 
present day. Both, I suspect, would be about equally sig- 
nificant. In the first rendering, we have a word, which 
has now nearly, if not quite, become obsolete; in the 
second, a word, which, though not obsolete in outward 
form, is, nevertheless, in the sense which our translators 
attached to it, namely, that of goods and chattels carried 
during a journey, unpacked ^hen the traveller stops, and 
packed, or trussed up, when he again sets out. 1 However, 
it is not our object, or intention, here at least, to draw 
comparisons between the renderings of our own and bye- 
gone versions. Instances, where this difference of render- 
ing appeared to me deserving of notice, will be found in 
another portion of this work. At present, we have to 
consider the word fardel. 

Dr. Johnson refers us to the Italian fardello, and most 
likely, had it occurred to him, would have traced the word 
a step higher, to the low, or barbarous Latin, fartellum, 
which, no doubt, sprang from fartum, the past participle 
of the Latin verb far do, To stuff, or cram, and as such, 
signified that which is stuffed or crammed into anything. 
But by some the word fardel has been referred to a very- 
different origin to the above, and it will be remembered, 
that on page 48, it was said the substantive fardel might, 

1 The word in the original is airoa-Kevaa-dfxevoL, literally, "having packed 
up then goods." 



88 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

perhaps, he connected with the Anglo Saxon verb far-an, 
To go. Yet, though there is something plausible in sup- 
posing fardel, like bundle, to be compounded of a verb 
(in the first instance far-an, To go, in the second, bind-an, 
To bind) and the Anglo Saxon substantive, still an English 
one, dee I, a division, or part, I fear the explanation, ad- 
mirable on account of the ingenuity it displays, has, 
nevertheless, no further claims to our credit. But, why 
must this natural and pleasant hypothesis be rejected? 
why must our faith in Mr. Tooke, for I scarcely need 
say that the hypothesis is his, be so rudely shaken? Be- 
cause, it is not supported by the testimony of facts, nor 
borne out by the analogy of the language. It is far more 
pleasant, than safe to speculate in etymology. Indeed, 
etymology does not even open a field to invention, pro- 
perly so called, but only to investigation. And it is this 
misconception, which has already laid the foundation of 
many blunders, which it is only in the power of a more 
extended, and fundamental knowledge of the component 
elements of our language to remove. This is the cause 
to which we must attribute those remarkable blunders — 
pleasing from their very ingenuity — which Mr. Home 
Tooke has made. He, who so unmercifully castigated 
the failings and mistakes of other men ; so unsparingly 
tore down the veil, with which they had succeeded in 
hiding the truth, was himself scarcely more successful 
than they, when he attempted to finish their task by 
his own unaided imagination. He preferred rather to 
solve his difficulties by an ingenious fiction, (take for 
instance, his explanation of the words barn, and bread) 
than to seek for a solution, where a true one could alone 
be found, namely, in the archives of the language itself. 
And thus it came to pass, that, while by his labours he 
has conferred a greater blessing on the literature of his 
country, than perhaps any man before, or after him, he 
has by his very ingenuity and independence, introduced 
not a few errors, which still remain to be dissipated. 
Not that ingenuity is unnecessary in the pursuit of 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 89 

etymological enquiry ; on the contrary, it is highly neces- 
sary. Yet, it is that ingenuity which is of a subordinate 
character, which is employed, not so much to assist the 
flights of speculation, and conjecture, as in detecting the 
radicle formation of words beneath those altered forms, 
which, through the course of time, and the agency of other 
influences, they have at length assumed. And, such being 
its nature, it is needless to observe, how indispensable is 
a knowledge of the radicle forms themselves, as well as 
of the principles of verbal formation. We have said, that 
the formation of bundle and fardel, as compounded of 
parts of verbs, with the Saxon substantive dee I, a part, or 
division, cannot be defended, either by the testimony of 
facts, or the analogy of the Saxon. For, if bundle be 
compounded of a verb (bind-an. To bind,) and the Saxon 
substantive dee I, a part, then girdle, beadle, &c. may be 
explained in the same way. But we know that the latter 
are verbal substantives, formed by the addition of the 
terminal syllable el, — a formation very common in the 
Saxon language ; — and there can be no doubt, that bundle, 
the Gothic bindle, and Saxon bindele, 1 is of precisely ana- 
logous formation. Indeed, I do not find that the sub- 
stantive dcel is ever compounded with verbs, or parts of 
them ; though it frequently is with substantives, and 
particles, if I may use so vague a term. 

It is true that very few of these compounds of dad, 
a part, have survived to our time ; yet there is one, ordeal, 
which is still common, though not with precisely the same 
meaning as it obtained in the Saxon. The Saxon or dad, 
signified "a just judgment," or, "a judgment based on 
the true principles of equity ;" with us it has come to 
signify any trying position in which a man may be placed. 

As for the word fardel, since it does not occur in 
the Saxon, nor, so far as I am aware, in the earlier 



1 It should, however, be observed, that the Saxon bindele, signifies rather 
the act of tying , a binding ; and bunda is used to designate bundles. 



90 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

Gothic, there seems no alternative but to accept the 
explanation of it given above. 1 

GEIECES. 

" And when he came into the grieces, it was so that he was 
borne of the souldiers, for the violence of the people. 

"And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the 
grieces, and beckoned with the hand unto the people." 

Acts xxi. v. 35 and 40. 

This word is spelt in almost every possible way. We 
find in Johnson, greece, greeze, grieze, and grice ; but 
which of the four is correct I do not undertake to say. 
Johnson himself, seems to think greece is, for he refers all 
the other forms to it. He calls ' ' it a neuter substantive, 
[corrupted from degrees] ; a flight of steps. Obsolete." 

1 Words, suck as the last two we have been considering, fardel, from 
the Latin fartellum, fartum, and fraile, fray el, from fraellum, &c, suggest 
a remark of general importance, since it concerns, not them only, but 
also that large class of words, which are not to be traced to any primitive 
stock, but are the creation of languages themselves not primary. Most 
languages have, to a certain extent, a creative power of their own. How 
many Avords have we now in use, which are the coinage of the times ! 
How fond we are of modifying the form of a word which already suggests 
one idea to the mind, so that it shall, in its altered form, suggest another 
idea ! Examples of this process are afforded by that numerous class 
of nouns in age; as windage, leakage, &c. And, although this crea- 
tive faculty is principally limited to the modification (sometimes by 
the addition of terminal syllables) of nouns, already existing, still it is 
easy to imagine, indeed we know it to have been the case, that during 
late years, when the arts and manufactures have been making such rapid 
progress, there have been new words invented to meet the growing ne- 
<;essity. In etymological investigation, the superficial method of merely 
finding the same word in a cognate language, instead of tracing it to its 
proper and true source, has been censured; and I make this remark to 
ward off a charge of inconsistency. It will be understood, now, that 
there is a class of words, which rightly forms an exception to the general 
rule; namely, those, which are the creation of the language where they 
are found, and as entire words, taking their origin thence, albeit the root, 
as in the case of fartum, may have to be sought for much further back. As a 
further illustration of this creative power, I would refer to that large, and 
still increasing class of substantives in ee; as trustee, legatee, and even 
payee ! 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 91 

. Thompson, in his " English Etymons," says, respecting 
it, " a flight of steps : French, gres, 1 from the Latin 
gradus." 

Johnson's derivation is rather too transparent, and 
artificial, to be accepted as at all probable. I think the 
following passage from Chaucer's '* Canterbury Tales," 
which I have taken the liberty to quote at some length, 
for reasons, which I hope will be sufficiently evident, may 
do more towards settling the difficulty than pages of 
discussion about it : 

" There n' is no thing 2 in gree suprlatif 
(As saith Senek) above an humble wif, 
Suffer thy wives tong, as Caton bit (biddeth) 
She shall command, and thou shalt suffren it, 



1 I am not prepared to deny that the French word gres, formerly 
signified " a flight of steps," and so gave rise to the word greece ; yet it is 
unfortunate, that the only meaning, which is given in modern French 
Dictionaries to the word gres, is " a sort of brown free-stone." However, it 
is fair to observe that les degres, is still used in French to denote 
" the steps of a public edifice ; " and it is just possible that greece, may 
be a corruption of this French word degres, though not of the English 
degrees. 

2 Lest the reader should suppose, that here, at least, is a remnant of 
French negative construction, I have appended the following short passage 
to shew that the usage of a double negative is strictly in accordance with 
the rules of Saxon construction. Indeed, to them, as to the Greeks, the 
rule of our modern English grammarians, that two negatives destroy each 
other, or make a positive, was unknown. 

Mid go'dum mannum nis na$er ne gold ne seolfer wis go'des 
mannes freo'ndscipe wifcme'ten. 

"Which rendered literally would read as follows : 

" With good men, neither nor gold, nor silver is not to be compared 
to the friendship of a good man." 

Nis in the above passage is simply the contraction of Saxon ne, not, 
and is, or ys, is. And there are not a few other words, which were formed 
in the same way in the Saxon ; some of which, we still retain, though per- 
haps, unconscious of their etymology. Thus naught is compounded of the 
Saxon ne, not, and aht, anything: neither of ne, not, and a$or, either; 
need of ne and ea'd. Ea'd signifies prosperity, or happiness, and need as 



92 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

And yet she woll obey of curtesie. 
A wif is keeper of thin husbondrie : 
Wei may the sike man bewaile and wepe, 
Ther as ther is no wif the hous to kepe. 
I warne thee, if wisely thou wilt werche (work) 
Love wel thy wif, as Christ loveth his cherche. 
If thou lovest thy self, love thou thy wif. 
No man hateth his flesh, but in his lif 
He fostreth it, and therefore bid I thee 
Cherish thy wif, or thou shalt never the. 1 
Husband and wif, what so men jape or play, 
Of worldly folk holden the siker 2 way, 
They ben so knit, ther may non harm betide, 
And namely upon the wives side. 
# # * * 

With face sad, his tale he hath hem told, 
He sayde, frendes, I am hore and old 
And almost (God wot) on my pittes brinke, 
Upon my soul somewhat most (must) I think. 
I have my body folily dispended, 
Blessed be God that it shal ben 3 amended: 
For I wol ben certaine a wedded man 
And that anon in all the haste I can." 

Marchanfs Tale. 



compounded of ne and ea'd signifies the absence, or reverse of prosperity ; and 
hence adversity, or want. Ea'd also enters into the composition of the 
Christian or Baptismal names, Edward (happy keeper), Edmund (happy 
protection), Edwin (happy in war), &c. 

1 " Cherish thy wif or thou shalt never the." 

i. e. prosper. The verb To the, which appears to have been common 
enough in Chaucer's time, though it has since died out, is the relic of the 
Saxon verb beo'n, To thrive, To flourish, or grow. 

It occurs in several other passages : 

" Because our fire was not made of beche 
That is the cause and non other, so the ich." 

i. e. So may I prosper." I may have occasion to refer to this verb 
hereafter. 

2 Siker, means sure. 

3 "Blessed be God that it shall ben amended." It is impossible to read 
this line without asking the question, why there are the two forms be and 
ben, when, in our time, the former would have been quite sufficient. The 
fact is, we have here a vestige, not quite obliterated, of Saxon syntax. The 
Saxons had no future tense to their verbs, neither have we, however sur- 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 93 

I think there is no doubt, but that the first line 
affords us the true clue to the word greece. It is easy 
to understand, how the early English word gree, signi- 
fying a step, in the singular number, would become grees, 
greeze, and finally, greece, in the plural, to signify a col- 
lection, or flight of steps. In the same manner, we have 
degree, from the French degre. 

It might be thought mere excess of caution, were I 
to hesitate to refer the French word, whatever it may 
have been, which gave us gree, to the Latin noun sub- 
tantive gradus ; and as the subject, to which the question 
properly belongs, will be considered in a subsequent chap- 
ter, I will at present do no more than observe, that there 
is in the Saxon, a substantive grad, signifying a step, and 
offer, as a conjecture, that from this root may possibly 
be derived the Latin words gradus, and gradior. 

IAKES. 

" And the king answered and said to the Caldeans, the 
thing is gone from me. If ye will not make me understand 
the dreame with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be drawen 
in pieces, and your houses shall be made a iaJces. 

Daniel u. 5. 

" Therefore, I make a decree, that every people, nation, 
and language, which speake any blasphemie against the God of 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be drawen in pieces, 
and their houses shall be made a takes, because there is no 
god that can deliver after this sort." — Daniel in. 29. 

I have been able to obtain very little trustworthy infor- 
mation respecting this word. I do not know, that it occurs 

prising the assertion may be, in English. What we call the future tense 
is in reality the conjunction of two verbs : the first, shall, which expresses 
obligation, or duty, and is really a present tense : the second, that which 
denotes the action, (as love, in " I shall love") and is nothing more than the 
infinitive mood. I shall love, signifies, I owe, I must, or am obliged to 
love ; and only by a kind of acquired usage, expresses the intention of loving 
at some future time. So ben in the passage above is the Saxon infinitive 
(almost unaltered), of the verb beon, To be. 



91 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

in any other passages, than the two already quoted ; nor, 
have I met with it elsewhere. It is properly a corruption 
of the barbarous, or low Latin word jactio, a casting, 
from the verb jacto, To cast, or throw. Consequently, if 
this be correct, the substantive takes 1 would signify a place 
where refuse matter of any kind is cast. 

GKENNE. 

"The proude have laide a snare for me, and spread a net with 
cordes in my pathway, and set grennes for me." — Psalm cxl. 5. 

" Keep me from the snare, which they have layd for me, and 
from the grennes of the workers of iniquitie." — Psalm cxl. 9. 

It is needless for me to remark, that for grennes, in 
the above passages, our present version has gins. The 
difference to the eye is not great, and as I had never met 
with the word grenn elsewhere, I thought it not unlikely, 
taking into consideration the laxity of spelling which still 
prevailed, that it was a corruption, or misprint for the 



1 The word dunghill, by which it has been replaced in our version, 
has the same meaning; in all probability, dung being connected with the 
verb dencgan, To knock, To ding ; whence come the substantives din, dint, 
and the verb to ding. 

"Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell 
Hark, now I hear them,— ding— dong, bell." 

The following are Mr. Tooke's words: 

"Bung (or as it was formerly written dong) by the change of the 
characteristic letter y to o, or to u, is the past tense, and therefore past 
participle of the verb dyngan, dejicere, To cast-down." 

But dyngan only means To dung, to manure, and is rather a verb 
formed from the Saxon word dincg, (which means not only dung, but also 
new-broTcen, or fallow-land) than the verb, whose past tense gives us the 
substantive dung. Still, in a subject like this, the truth of which is buried 
so deep in the remote ages of the past, it well becomes us to eschew anything 
that savours of prejudice, or dogmatism, and to bring to its consideration 
only a spirit of candour and docility, which will thankfully accept so much 
of the truth as is now within our reach, but not be angry, that a portion 
is for ever lost. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 95 

word gin. But a little further investigation quickly 
shewed me, that this was not the case, though I believe 
the opinion is still upheld by some. 

The word does not occur in Dr. Johnson's dictionary ; 
we may therefore fairly presume, it had in his time already 
become obsolete. Yet, it is well worthy our notice, if not 
for its own sake, at least on account of its close relation- 
ship to several other words, which are still, and, so long as 
English continues to be spoken, will be current amongst 
us. Through the long lapse of time these words have 
become so altered in appearance and signification — have, 
as it were, so receded from each other — that the family 
likeness can no longer be traced in their outward form. 
They have now, to speak familiarly, set up on their own 
account, and disclaim all connection with their quondam 
relations. It may appear somewhat bold to assert, that 
this old, and now obsolete word, grenn, is own brother to 
the words yard, yarn, garb and many others ; yet it is 
more than probable that such is the case. Indeed, there 
can be little doubt that 

Grenn, 

Yarn, 

are all closely connected with the old 
Saxon verb, variously spelt and pro- 

Garb, nounced, geanvian, to make ready ; to 

Gear, prepare ; to procure ; to supply. 

To Gar, 
Perhaps Yore.-* 

I think it will be easy to shew, that in most of these 
words, if not in all, the vital energy of the verb is still 
discernible. 

Grenn, is the old Saxon word gryn, and signifies a 
contrivance, prepared to catch living creatures. 

Yarn 1 and yard are simply yar-en and yar-ed, the two 
forms of the past participle. 

1 "Diversions of Purley," p. 357. 



Yard, 

Yare. 



> 



96 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

Yarn is wool, or cotton prepared for weaving ; formerly 
wool only. 

Yard, The constant use of this word alone has led us 
to forget its real meaning of something, anything, pre- 
pared ; and it seems natural to look upon it, not as a 
participle, but as a substantive proper. Habit has caused 
this inaccuracy. Our Saxon ancestors avoided it by pre- 
fixing the word mete, To gyrd ; thus producing metegyrd, 1 
a measuring rod. And, in later times, the participle 
yard was not used alone, but in connection with the vir- 
tual, and conventional substantive wand ; though this is 
in reality, nothing more than the past participle wan-ed, 
of the Anglo Saxon verb wanian, To diminish.* Even in 
our day this use of yard, in its more general and less 
definite sense of anything prepared, is, I suppose, pre- 
served in the common word steelyard; that is, a steel 
instrument prepared, not to determine the length in this 
case, but the weight of any material. So, also, formerly 
there was the yard-land, or gyrd-landes, (lit. yard of land) 
which varied in different parts of England, but signified 
in each place a portion of land marked out by the gyrd, 
or prepared measuring wand, 3 Of course it is impossible 
to assign a reason why yard should now denote a measure 
of length onlyj instead of area, weight, capacity, or what 
not. It would be quite as rational to talk of a yard of 
beef, 4 as a yard of tape, insomuch as the word contains 
no reference at all to anything. 

Yare, as an English word, is used both as an im- 
perative, and a past participle of the Anglo Saxon verb 

1 I am not aware whether the length of the Saxon mete-gyrd was the 
same as our yard wand. The prefixed syllable mete is part of the verb 
metan, to measure. 

2 See p. 77. 

3 The ycvrdland, or vvrgate, was usually the fourth part of the Tiyde, 
and would, therefore, contain about thirty acres. In some places, it con- 
sisted of seven acres of plough land and pasture for two oxen, one cow, 
and six sheep. 

4 See Appendix to this page. 




WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 97 

gearwian, To prepare. Thus, in " Antony and Cleopatra," 
it occurs as an imperative : 

"Yare, yare, good Iras." 

while in Chaucer and Gower, it is frequently used as a 
past participle : 

"The wind was good the ship was yare 
Thei toke her leve., and forth thei fare." 

Gower, lib. 5, fol. 101, p. 2, col. 1. 

" This Tereus let make his shippes yare 
And unto Greece himself is forth yfare, 
Unto his father-in-law gan he pray, 
To vouchsafe that for a month or tway 
That Philomene his wives suster might 
On Progne his wife but ones have a sight, 
And she shall come to you again anon, 
Myself with her I will both come and gon, 
And as my hertes life I will her kepe." 

Legend of Fair Women, 

Cant. Tales, line 2267. 



GARB. GEAR. 

Garb, gear, proceed from the same Gothic word gi- 
crva; Saxon gearwa, or geara. The reason for the 
difference is simply this ; garb has descended to us 
indirectly, through the French, a fact which sufficiently 
accounts for the change it has undergone; while gear 
is nothing more nor less than the Saxon word itself, 
descended directly from the Gothic. Even in French, 
the word garbe, which is the parent of the English word 
garb, does not signify dress, or outward appearance, so 
much as the "make and rigging' 5 of a thing, in which 
sense it answers more nearly to the English word gear 9 
which signifies an equipment, or outfit. It would, how- 
ever, be too much to expect, that a word from the French, 
could settle down in a strange land without undergoing 
some modification in its meaning. 

ii 



9© OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

But, to return to the word which has suggested these 
remarks, it may be asked, how it came to pass that the 
good old Saxon word gren, fell into disuse ? Exactly for 
this reason, that there was another word, perhaps a little 
more euphonious, to supply its place. Indeed, we have at 
this time, a.d. 1600, two words very much alike in out- 
ward form, to express the same idea : the wonder is, that 
both had survived so long. Gin, which is substituted in 
our version for gren, has the same meaning as the latter : 

" The gins of the workers of iniquity 
Hell yawneth upon them." 

" For Gigas the geaunt 
With a gyn hath engyned 
To breke and to bete a-down 
That ben aj'iens Ihesus." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line ]2581. 

" He that it wrought he coud many a gin ; 
He waited (watched) many a constellation, 
Or (before) he had done this operation, 
And knew ful many a sele and many a bond." 

Cant. Tales, line 10442. 

Whether the word be called Norman, or Saxon, is 
merely, I take it, a matter of precedence; for there 
can be little doubt, that the root of the word gin is to 
be found in the Saxon word "gin," 1 an expanse, opening, 
abyss. It will be seen that, amongst the Saxons, it had 
not yet obtained the meaning of deceit, or guile, which 
it afterwards came to do amongst the French and our- 
selves. Dr. Johnson supposes gin to be derived from 
engine. The absurdity of such a conjecture needs no 
demonstration. It is equivalent to saying, that a simple 
word may be derived from its compound, and, if this 
were the case, as well might trance be called a derivative 
of entrance, wrap of enwrap, &c. 



1 Whence comes the Saxon verb gman, which is simply the English verb 
To yawn. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 99 



PILL. 



" Did \inll you by any of them whom I sent vnto you ? 

" I haue desired Titus, and with him I haue sent a brother 
did Titus pill you of anything?"— 2 Cor. xn. 17, 18. 

It may, perhaps, be questioned, whether the word 
pill is strictly entitled to a place in this chapter; inas- 
much as, though it has certainly become obsolete during 
the last two centuries, there are one or two shoots from 
the same stock nourishing, even in the present day, of 
which I may mention pillage as one. The following 
seems the genealogy of the word : The Saxon word pil, 
a pile, or dart (whence the Saxon verb pi' Ian, to beat 
with a pestle), gave rise in the Latin to pilum, a dart, 
and, I think, to the verb pilo, To plunder. The Latin 
verb pilo, became piller in the French, whence arose 
the substantives pillage, pillour} both of which were 
once English words, though the former of them only 
has maintained its ground. But, observe, there is in 
the fFrench not only the verb piller, To plunder, but 
also^i'Zer, To pound, (exactly corresponding to the Saxon 
verb above, pilan), and the substantives pilier, a pillar ; 
pilon, a pestle, and pilori, whence comes our word 
pillory. 

Thus, it seems highly probable that the Saxon ^7, — nay, 
let us call it, as it is, the English word pile (for the 
accent in the former, and the affixed e in the latter, 
are only different ways of lengthening the %), has given 
words to the Latin and French independently; and also 
to the French, and thence again to the English, other 
words through the medium of the Latin. The following 
plan may serve to make this more plain : — 



1 Also pillard, a pilferer ; pillerie, robbery. One is strongly tempted 
to think pilfer must have some connexion with the same root as the above. 



100 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

Saxon pi'l, a pile or dart. 



1 


Latin. 

Pilum, and probably, 

pilo, to plunder. 

1 

, ^ 1 

French. 
Piller, pillage, pillour. 


1 

A 


r— ^ \ 

English. 

Pile. 


r ~\ 

French. 

Filer, to bruise ; 

pilier, pilori. 

1 

English. 
Pillar, pillory. 



English. 
To pill, and pillage. 
" And God amend the Pope ! 

That pileth holy kirke, 

And clymeth bifore the kynge, 

To be keeper over cristene ; 

And counteth noght though cristene ben 

Killed and robbed." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 13845. 
" ' Thanne is many a man lost,' 

Quod l a lewed-vicory. 2 

' I am a curatour of holy kirke, 

And cam nevere in my tj*me 

Man to me that me kouthe (could) tell 

Of cardinale vertues, 

Or that accounted conscience 

At a cokkes (cock's) fethere, or an hennes. 

I knew nevere cardynal, 

That he ne came fro the Pope ; 

And we clerkes whan thei come 

For hir (their) communes (commons) paieth 

For hir pelure (fur), and hir palfreyes mete, 

And pilours that hem folweth.'" 3 

1 Quoth. 

2 A lay-vicar. I do not know that any single passage could give a 
clearer insight into the ancient meaning of lewd, than this. It shews 
How much the past differed from the present signification, which suggests, 
not so much simplicity, and ignorance, as vice and licentiousness. 

3 "And pilours who follow them." 

Perhaps the reader is not aware, that all the persons in the plural 
number indefinite tense, indicative mood of Saxon verbs, end in $ or th. 
At the time when the above quotation was written, about a.d. 1362, this 
inflection had not been dropped. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 101 

HARBEROUS. 

" For a Bishop must be unreprouable as Gods steward, not 

froward but harberous" — Titus i. 7, 8. 

11 Bee ye harberous one to another, without grudging." 

1 Pet. iv. 9. 

This word has fallen into disuse from much the same 
reason, I suppose, as the word gren — namely, redun- 
dancy. The same idea of the mind requires but one word to 
express it, provided it is always the same ; and as gren and 
gin were not both requisite, and consequently the former 
yielded to the latter, so harberous and hospitable intimate 
too nearly the same qualification to require separate ex- 
pressions; in consequence, harberous has disappeared and 
hospitable alone remains on duty. It is remarkable, that 
in both cases, good old Saxon words have been relin- 
quished for words which, if not newer, would at least be 
fresher than those they supplanted. 

The verb, To harbour, and the substantive Harbour, 

were formerly spelt herberwe. 

n 

Herberwed hym at an hostrie, 1 

And to the hostiler 2 called, 

And seide 'haue kepe this man 

Til 1 come fro the justes; 

And lo! here silver,' he seide, 

•For salve to his woundes.'" 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 11514. 
"Befelle, that, in that seson on a day, 
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, 
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage 
To Canterbury with devoute corage, 
At night was come in that hostelrie 
Wei nine and twenty into a compagnie 
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle 
In felawship, and pilgrimes were they alle, 
That toward Canterbury wolden ride. 



1 A hostelrie or inn. 

2 The inn-keeper; hence probably conies hostler, a man who has 
charge of the inn stables. 



102 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

Grete chere made oure hoste us evcricli on 

And to the souper sette he us anon : 

And served us with vitaille of the beste. 

Strong was the wine, and wel to drink us lest 1 

A seinely man our hoste was with alle 

For to han ben a marshal in an halle 

A large man he was with eyen stepe, 

A fairer burgeis 2 is there non in Chepe : 

Bold of his speche, and wise and Avel ytaught, 

And of manhood him lacketh righte naught. 

Eke therto was he righte a mery man, 

And after souper plaien he began, 

And spake of mirthe amonges other thinges, 

Whan that we hadden made our rekeninges; 

And saide thus ; now, lordinges, trewely 

Ye ben to me welcome right hertily : 

For by my trouthe, if that I shall not lie, 

I saw nat (not) this yere swiche a compagnio 

At ones in this herberwe, as is now." 

Prologue to Cant. Tales. 

But we may make a still nearer approach to the root 
of this word, which is again to be found in the Saxon. 

" The coke (cook) of London, while the Beve spake, 
For joye (him thought) he clawed him on the bak: 
A ha (quod he) for Cristes passion, 
This miller had a sharp conclusion, 
Upon this argument of herbergage." 

Prologue to the Cokes Tale. 

Now herbergage is a French word ; that is, intro- 
duced by the Normans, and signifies a lodging. It 
approaches very nearly to what we must consider the 
root of this family of words, namely, the Saxon com- 
pound Here-berga, a station, where an army rested on 
its march, and thence a harbour. Here-berga, a har- 
bour, and liere-bergan, To harbour, are compounded of 

1 "And wel to drink us lest 
It pleased us wel to drink." 
So " Him lust to ride." " It pleased him to ride." Leste, liste, luste, 
is an impersonal verb, signifying " it pleaseth," like the Latin jurat, libel. 
It is the Saxon verb lyst-an, To wish, (from the root lyst, love, admira- 
tion, desire), but it does not appear to have been used in a bad sense as 
it has come to be now. 

2 Hence I suppose, burgess, in burgess-constable. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 103 

the Saxon substantive Here, an army, and the verb 
Beorgan or Bergan, To protect, To shelter, (from the 
root beorg, & hill, a burrow, or barrow). 

But, besides this substantive herbergage, which does 
not seem to have been of much use to us, we have to 
thank our French neighbours for another word of very- 
considerable value. 

" The fame anon thurgout the town is born 
How Alia King shall come on pilgrimage, 
By herbergeours that wenten him before." 

The Man of Laives Tale, line 5415. 

From the word herberg, closely resembling the Saxon 
Hereberga, our ingenious French cousins made two other 
substantives, Herbergage, a lodging ; and Herbergeour, one 
who goes before to provide lodging. From the latter of 
these we are indebted for our pretty word harbinger. 

It does not appear, that the form harbour has been 
modified by any foreign influence. I believe we have 
ourselves transformed the Saxon hereberga into the 
English harbour. In that pleasing description of a 
summer garden in Chaucer's " Bomaunt of the Bose," 
it is written herborow. 

" Into that gardin well yrought, 
Whoso that me coud have brought, 
By ladders or else by degree, 
It would well have liked mee, 
For such solace, such joy, and pleie, 
I trow that never man ne seie, 
As was in that place delicious: 
The gardin was not daungerous, 1 
To herborow birdes many one, 
So rich a yere was never none 

1 "The gardin was not daungerous 
To herborow birdes." 
That is, was not sparing.- Daungerous occurs in one or two other passages 
in this sense. The construction "daungerous to herborow birdes," seems 
to remind us of that of the Latin supine "mala tactu vipera." A viper 
dangerous to handle. 



104 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

Of birdes song and braunches grene, 
Therein were birdes mo (more) I wene, 
Than been in all the realme of Fraunce : 
Full blisful was the accordaunce, 
Of swete pitous song they made, 
For all this world it ought glade." 

GARD. 

" And the imbroidered gard of the same ephod, which shall 
be upon him, shall be of the selfe same worke and stuffe." 

Exodus xxvi it. 8. 

Gard is, I suppose, either a contraction of girdle, 
Saxon gyrdel, or, more probably, the Saxon word geard, 
an enclosure, itself, which is the root not only of girdle, 
but also gives us, or enters into the compositon of, the 
substantives 

Yard. Garden. 

Garter. Girder. 

Garland. Orchard. 1 

SPARSE. 

11 As it is written. He hath sparsed abroad, and hath given 
to the poore: his benevolence remaineth for ever." — 2 Cor. rx. 9. 

The loss we have sustained here is certainly not a 
serious one. The verb To sparse, besides being very 
ill-sounding, would be redundant, while we have the 
more euphonious compound disperse, and the Saxon 
verb To scatter. 

PIGH. 

" Who is a minister of the sanctuaiy, and of that true 

tabernacle which the Lord pight and not man." — Heb. vm. 2. 

Pight is the past tense of the verb To pigli, now 
spelt pitch* The word occurs under the same form in 

Chaucer : — 

" Out of the ground a furie infernal sterte, 
From Pluto sent at requeste of Saturne, 

1 Orchard is the Saxon ort^geard, or wyrt-geard, i. e. a icyrt-yard, 
or enclosed space for the cultivation of herbs; and then secondarily of 
fruit trees. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 105 

For which his hors for fere gan to turne, 
And lept aside and foundred as he lepe : 
And er that Arcite may take any kepe 
He fight him on the pomel 1 of his hede, 
That in the place he lay as he were ded, 
His brest to-brosten with his sadel bow. 
As black he lay as any cole or crow 
So was the blood grounen in his face." 

The Knightes Tale. 

The etymology of the verb To pitch is somewhat 
doubtful ; nor do I see that this more ancient mode of 
spelling it affords us any further clue. It is worthy 
of remark, that this older form was at this time rapidly 
falling into disuse. Of the many passages in the Bible 
where it might have occurred, I believe this is the only 
one where it does. 

GHEST. 

" But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her 
ghests are in the depth of Hell." — Proverbs rx. 18. 

" So those seruants went out into the highwayes, and gathered 
together all that euer they found, both good and bad: so the 
wedding was furnished with ghests. 

" Then the King came in, to see the ghests, and saw there a 
man which had not on a wedding garment." — Matth. xxn. 10, 11. 

It was only the spelling of this word which attracted 
my attention, and induced me to notice it here. Its 
resemblance to the word ghost struck me as remarkable, 
and suggested a train of ideas, which I hope may not 
be found altogether impertinent to the general character 
of my subject. After all, the resemblance between ghest 
and ghost — and, to trace them still further back, between 
the Saxon gcest and ga'st, whence they respectively spring ; 
a resemblance which to my eye seemed indicative not 
only of a common parentage, but also of a common 
animation — may be only fortuitous and imaginary. This, 
however, I shall leave with my reader to decide. 

1 A pomel was anything round. It is now, I believe, used only with 
reference to saddle. 






106 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

The earliest form in which the word guest, Saxon 
gcest, appeared as an English word was gest. Thus : 

" Antony a dayes 
Aboute noon tyme 

Hadde a brid (bird) that brought hym breed. 
That he by lyvede; 
And though the gome 1 hadde a gest, 
God fond hem bothe." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 10181. 

It occurs again in Chaucer's touching story of 
"Patient Grisilde :" 

" A few sheep spinning on the field she kept, 
She wolde not ben idel til she slept. 
And when she homward came she wolde bring 
Wortes and other herbes times oft, 
The which she shred and sethe for hire living 
And made hire bed ful hard and nothing soft : 
And aye she kept hive fadres life on loft 
With every obeisance and diligence, 
That child may don to fadres reverence." 

When the noble Markis visits her humble cot, and 
asks her " fadre " to take him " as his son in lawe," the 
story goes on to say: 

" No wonder is though that she be astonied, 
To see so gret a gest come in that place, 
She never was to non swiche gestes woned 2 
For which she loked with ful pale face." 

But, indeed, neither guest nor ghost appear to have 
been originally spelt with h. In the "Vision of Pierce 
Ploughman," ghost is frequently written goost ; while in 
Chaucer we find repeatedly gost, for ghost or spirit. 

When the cup of poor " Grisilde V sorrow was well 
nigh full to overflowing with the seemingly heartless 
treatment of her husband, she says to him : 

"Ne shall the gost within myn herte stent 3 
To love you best with all my trewe intente : 

1 Gome, a man. See Appendix to this page. 

2 Accustomed. 

3 Desist. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 107 

And with that word she gan the hous to dight, 
And tables for to sette and beddes make, 
And peined her to don all that she might, 
Praying the chambereres, for Goddes sake, 
To hasten hem, and fast swepe and shake, 
And she the most servicable of all, 
Hath every ehamber arraied, and his hall." 

Ibid. 
Again : 

"It liketh hem to be clene in body and gost : 

Of min estat I wol not maken bost. 

For wel ye know a lord in his household 

Ne hath nat every vessell all of gold : 

Som ben of tree; and don hir lord service. 

God clipeth folk to him in sou dry wise, 

And everich hath of God a propre gift, 
• Som this, som that him liketh shift." 

The Wif of Bathes Tale. 

There is no more reason for spelling ghost with h } than 
nor, indeed, any reason for either. 



As guest is the Saxon goest, so ghost is the Saxon gdst, 
signifying first, the breath, and secondly, a spirit, a ghost. 

Now, is not the sonl or spirit the guest of the body ; 
and may not the body be considered as the earthly house, 
where a spiritual visitor, or guest is, for a short time, en- 
tertained and lodged, before it wings away its flight to its 
final home — its last abiding place of everlasting joy or 
misery ? 

Such a notion would not be strange to, or even un- 
paralleled amongst the Saxons. 

The word said (our word soul) is a verbal substantive, 
derived from the verb sdw-an, To sow, because the soul is 
the germ, or seed, sown by the Creator of spirits in the 
bodies of men. 1 And this metaphor was further prettily 
carried out by the Saxons in their substantives sdwl-hord, 

1 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living 
soul. — Genesis II. 7. 



108 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT 

sdwl-hus ; both which were used by them to denote the 
body, as being the repository or chamber of the soul. So 
that we see the idea of the ghost or spirit, as the guest of 
the body, was familiar to them, whether, or not, there be 
anything beyond mere conjecture in the external resem- 
blance of ghest to ghost. 

If, indeed, it be that there is, may we not learn a 
lesson, that our bounden duty is to treat our spiritual 
guest well, and ensure for it, so far as lays in our power, 
a better home above — an entrance into a happier abode, 
when that stern bailiff, Death, shall have laid his distraint 
on this earthly tenement, and placed our goods in se- 
questration. 1 

I hope I shall be pardoned for transcribing the follow- 
ing somewhat lengthy dialogue from the " Colloquies of 
Erasmus." It pursues, and forms, to my idea, no inapt 
comment to the train of thought which I have alluded to 
above. 

" Chrysoglottus. Although the philosophical books of Cicero 
seem for the most part to breathe a sort of divinity, yet that 
which he wrote when now an old man, concerning Old Age, 
certainly seems to me a kvkvciov acr/xa (a swan-like song), as the 
Greek proverb has it. I have been reperusing it to-day, and this 
passage I committed to memory, because it stands forth pre- 
eminently beyond the rest : ' But if the Deity should bestow on 
me the power to become a little child, and utter my baby cradle- 
notes again, I would certainly refuse the proffered boon : nor, 
indeed, could I wish, now that my course is as good as run, to 
be recalled from the goal to the starting place. For what 
advantage does this life afford which is not rather counteracted 
by trouble ? Or, if not by absolute trouble, at least by a feeling 
of satiety or disappointment. For I would not bewail my life 
as many, and they learned men, have often done. Nor does it 
grieve me to have lived; since I have so lived that I may not 
think it has been in vain. And I depart this life as it were from 
an Inn, not as from my Home. For Nature has furnished for us a 
chamber where we may sojourn for a time, but which we must 
not look upon as our permanent abode. Oh ! for that illustrious 
day, when I shall set out to join that congregation and assembly 

1 Previous to this inspiration the body of man would resemble a new 
house not yet inhabited. 



WORDS AND FORMS OF WORDS. 109 

of spirits, and leave this medley of all kinds of vice.' Thus much 
Cato. What sentiment more holy than this could have been ex- 
pressed even by a Christian? ***** 

" Theophilus. Probably so; yet permit me to make an obser- 
vation, which occurred to me while you were reciting that pas- 
sage. I have often wondered with myself, seeing how all men 
desire long life, and shrink from death, although scarcely any 
one is known so happy, I will not say in old age, but in advanced 
life, who, being asked whether, if he might, he would become 
young again, knowing that the same good and evil fortune, in 
every respect, would have to be endured, as had already happened 
to him in life, would have made the same reply as Cato; es- 
pecially, were he to consider all the sorrow or joy that had 
befallen him in the years recalled. For frequently even pleasing 
recollections are marred by a certain feeling of shame or re- 
morse, and thus become no less painful to the mind than sorrow- 
ful ones. This, I imagine, the very best poets have referred to, 
when they say, that not until the soul has drunk deep at the 
oblivious stream of Lethe does it feel any regret for the deserted 
body. 

11 Uranius. That sentiment is certainly a beautiful one ; nor 
does it appear to me to admit of doubt. But how much that 
expression, ' It does not grieve me that I have lived,' pleased 
me ! Yet how few Christians so regulate this life as to be able 
to say this of themselves ! The majority of men think they have 
not lived in vain if, when they come to die, they can leave 
behind them riches heaped together, either honestly or dis- 
honestly, it matters not which. But Cato thinks that he has 
not been born in vain, because, as an upright and pious citizen, 
a faithful magistrate, he had lived for the Republic ; because he 
had left to posterity the monuments both of his virtue and 
industry. What could have been said more beautiful than this, 
* I depart as it were from an Inn, not as from my Home.' We 
may lodge for a time at an inn until the host bid us take our 
departure. A man is not easily driven from his own house. And 
yet downfall, or fire, or any other accident whatsoever frequently 
does effect his expulsion. And, even should none of these ills 
befall, yet to an old man the collapsing walls of his tenement 
ought to admonish him that he must presently leave it. Not less 
elegant is that expression of Socrates in Plato, that the human 
soul is placed in this body as in a garrison, whence it is unlawful 
to depart without the permission of the Commander, or to spend 
any longer time in it than appears good to Him, who appointed us 
to keep it. The meaning in Plato is more significant, inasmuch 
as he has used the figure, or simile of the garrison, instead of the 
house : if, indeed, we do but sojourn for a time in the house, in 
the garrison we have our proper duties, which our Commander 



110 OBSOLETE AND OBSOLESCENT WORDS. 

has appointed us to perform : a simile by no means repugnant to 
Scripture, which, at one time, compares the life of a man to a 
warfare, at another, to a contest. 

" Uranius. But to me at least this speech of Cato's seems 
beautifully to correspond with that of St. Paul's, who, writing to 
the Corinthians, calls that heaventy mansion, which we expect 
after this life oiiciav and ohcrtrnptew] that is, a house or domicile. 
But this body he calls a tabernacle, (Graece o-ktjvo?) a tent. For 
we who are in this tabernacle, says he, groan, being burdened. 
And the same figure is carried out by St. Peter, when he says, 
4 But I think it right as long as I am in this tabernacle to put you 
in remembrance, knowing that I must speedily la}'- aside my 
tabernacle.' But indeed what else is that which Christ himself 
tells us, when he say, ' that we should so live in watchfulness as 
those who may be on the point of death ; should so be engaged 
in all virtuous deeds as those who will live for ever.' " 






CHAPTER VI. 



OBSOLETE FORMS OP THE PAST TENSE AND 
PAST PARTICIPLE. 



Except that the double forms of the past participle in 
en and ed, seem to have been at this time indifferently 
used, it does not appear that the past three centuries have 
chronicled many striking alterations in the inflection of 
verbs. The past tenses which are in use now, were, for 
the most part, in use at the time we are considering. Still, 
there are a few noteworthy exceptions to this general rule, 
which we are bound to notice. They are but few and 
require but little comment. 



STROOK. STROKE. 

The verb To strike, which now forms its past tense, and 
generally its past participle in struck, had formerly two 
other forms, neither of which correspond exactly with our 
own. 

"And always, both night and day, hee cryed in the moun- 
taines and in the graues, and stroole himself with stones. 

Mark v. 5. 
" Nevertheless, it satisfieth them not that we are in bitter 
captiuitie, but they have stroken hands with their idols." 

Esther (additional portion) ch. xiv. 3. 

The past tense, corresponding to stroken, would be 
stroke. Possibly our substantive stroke, a Moiv, may ha^e 



112 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE 

originated from this form stroken, though we must hear 
in mind, that the verbs To strike, and To stroke, i. e. to 
make smooth, were distinct, even in the Saxon. 1 

WAN. 

" Thus Antiochus wan many strong cities in the land of 
Egypt, and took away the spoyles of the land of Egypt." 

1 Mace. i. 20. 

Wanne is also found "Simon wanne the citie of 
Joppa." 

Both these forms are more correct than that at present 
in use. The verb To win, if properly conjugated would re- 
semble the verb To hegin, making the past tense wan and 
the participle wun. Why the past participle ever came to 
be spelt won I know not, unless for sake of euphony in 
spelling. 

The Saxon verb Winn-an is formed from the root winn, 
contention, war, labour, trouble. It is by a purely inductive 
method of reasoning, that the verb To win has acquired 
the signification it now implies, namely that of victory, or 
superiority. And this in the following way : 

Winn-an, as formed from the root winn, signifies To 
contend, To make war, To struggle with labour, pain, or 
anxiety, for a thing : thence, since what is energetically 
laboured for is in the end generally obtained, it comes 
to signify To obtain, To acquire, To win, subdue, conquer. 3 

1 The Saxon verb Strecc-an, To make prostrate, whence come our 
verbs To stretch: — 

"Hee streched out his hand to the drinke offering." 

Eccles. L. 15. 
And To strike, is formed from the root strec, violence, a stretch; while 
Stracian, To stroke, is formed from the root strac, straight, and therefore 
signifies "to make straight," or "smooth." 

8 Proper names in -win, contain this root: as Baldwin, bold in war: 
Edwin, happy in war, &c. Winning, however, in the sense of pleasing, 
and winsome are compounded of the Saxon word win or wyn, pleasure. 
"Shall we never more behold thee; 
Never hear thy winning voice again? 
When the spring-time comes, gentle Annie, 
When the wild flowers he scattered o'er the plain." 

Ballad. 



AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 113 

FET. 

Fet is frequently used as the past tense of the verb To 
fet, or as we now write it, fetch. 

HOLPE. 

"And after lie was come thither, he holpe them much, which 
had beleeued through grace." — Acts xvm. 27. 

This form is still retained in our Church service : 
" He remembering his mercy, hath holpen his servant Israel." 
Holpen is exactly the old Saxon form of the past par- 
ticiple, and it is matter of regret that we have suffered it 
to fall into disuse. 

OUGHT. 

This is another instance where time and usage have 
reconciled us to error ; or rather, perverted our eyes till we 
no longer recognise it as such. 

Ought is in reality the past tense of the Saxon verb 
A'gan, 1 To own, or Have. It is remarkable, that the signi- 

1 The past tense of dgan is spelt a'ht, which is very correctly denoted 
in sound by the way in which ought is pronounced in English. The a' 
has the broad sound of a, somewhat resembling the pronunciation of o, 
in bone, home, stone ; oa in broad, Saxon bra'd, boar, Saxon bar : and oe 
in foe, Saxon fa', doe, Saxon da', &c. 

The following passage, from the Eomance of " Sir Guy," may tend to 
throw some light on the meaning which the verb To owe obtained in 
early English. It will be found, I think, closely to resemble the Saxon 
verb dgan, To possess, in the signification it at first bore. 

"To the pallaice he yode (went) anon 
And lyghted down of his steede full soone. 
Through many a chamber yede Baynborne, 
A knight he found in dongeon, 
Baynborne grete hym as a knight courtoise 
'Who otoeth' he said 'this fayre pallaice?'" 

Indeed, it seems highly probable, that not only the verb ought, but 
also the verb To own, are of modern, and when I say modern I mean 
English, coinage: the first from the past tense a'ht, the second from the 
past participle dgen of the Saxon verb agan, To oivn. 

On the probable derivation of the noun substantive, see Appendix to 
this page. 

I 



114 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE 

fication of duty, devoir, fyc, does not appear to have be- 
longed to this verb originally, but, that it has acquired it 
by a kind of inductive reasoning, similar to that noticed 
above in the case of the verb To win. 

The past participle of Saxon A'g-an, To own, is a'gen; 
whence comes the possessive adjective own, which is affixed 
to the possessive pronouns my, thy, his, &c. 

" Thou sayest, that dropping houses and eke smoke, 
And chiding wives maken men to flee 
Out of hire oicen hous." 

Wife of Bathes Tale. 

"Also we forgive the ouersights, and faults committed vnto 
this day, and the crown tax that ye ought us." 

1 Mace. xiii. 39. 

" But when the servant was departed he found one of his 
fellow-servants which ought him an hundred pence, and he layed 
hands on him, and thratled him, saying, pay me that thou owest." 

Matt, xviii. 28. 

Use has seized upon this past tense, and converted it 
into an independent verb, to signify the obligation, gen- 
erally moral, by which a man is bound to a certain course 
of conduct ; while, to disguise this perversion, a fresh per- 
fect tense, oiced, has been coined to supply the place of the 
missing one. Though no considerations can make that 
right, which, is radically wrong, still there are reasons 
which go far in extenuation of this violent procedure. 
And foremost amongst them would be that need which 
was felt for such a verb as we now have in ought. 1 
" I owe to do a thing " sounds awkward, though expressive 
and correct enough. Even still, our language is somewhat 
poverty stricken for a substantive to express what is some- 
times called "his duty," but which is frequently better 
expressed by the French word, "devoir ;" though this word 
is as much English as, and more right to be so, than many 
others, which now pass unchallenged amongst us. 



1 The verb is only used in those tenses where it is required : namely, 
the present, and pagfc. 



AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 115 

STALE. 

" But Jehosheba took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stqle 
him from among the kinges sonnes, that should be slain, both 
him and his nource." — 2 Kings xi. 2. 

SWOMME. 

" Then the souldiers counsel was to kil the prisoners, lest 
any of them, when he had swomme out, should flee awa}'." 

Acts xxvn. 42. 

This form of the past participle is undoubtedly more 
correct than our own : there is no authority, besides that 
of usage, for swum, except in the past tense, and even 
there, swam is more correct. 1 

FOUGHTEN, 

As the past participle of the verb To fight, is strictly 
correct ; it is found once or twice, 2 Mace. xn. 36. 

HURTED. 

" Thou madest the sun that it liurted not them in their 
honourable journey." — Wisdom of Salomon, xviii. 3. 

This is the last example I have to notice. It is but 
fair to inform my reader, that the above forms of the past 
tense, and past participle, though they do occur, and some 
of them not unfrequently, in the Breeches Bible, are still 
the exception rather than the rule. They appear but as 
the lingering remnants of declining usages, — but as the 
last descendants of a race, which was rapidly becoming 
extinct. 

It will not have escaped observation, that in almost 
every case above noticed the change, which time has 
produced, has been to abolish what are called the strong 
forms of the past tense, and past participle, and substitute 
weak forms in their place. 2 This is much to be regretted, 

1 The changes which have taken place in the verb To win, noticed on 
page 112, will occur to my reader. 

2 Weak forms are those where the past tense and past participle are 
formed by the addition of the syllable ed to the present, as love, loved; 
strong forms those, where the past tense and past participle are formed by 
the change of a radical vowel of the verb: as drink, drank, druvlc. 



116 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE 

inasmuch as the creative power of the language is now 
gone, and any defection is not only permanent, but does 
not admit of replacement. 

We occasionally hear sew used as the past tense of the 
verb To sow ; " I sew my barley last week." Now I never 
heard anyone do this, who knew why he did so, or, indeed, 
for any other reason, than because it seemed an easy 
natural way of speaking. Nay, further, I have observed 
men of fair education, who ought to know good English 
from bad, titter when they heard this word used ; and in 
some instances it has been remarked to me afterwards, 
in private, " Mr. Mangles must be a very illiterate man, 
for did you observe he made use of sew as the past 
tense of the verb To sow." 1 Strange, that the man who 
left school when a boy at fourteen, who has done nothing 
ever since but ride young horses, and attend the markets, 
should, as it were by instinct, speak his own language 
more correctly, than those whose lifetime has been spent 
in misguided attempts to learn it. Nature, in this case, 
seems a truer guide than education ; because education 
does not touch the sore, and, therefore, till it does, can 
never effect a cure. Language is not independent of the 
physical constitution of a people. We are in the main but 
the descendants of those, who in past time assisted to form 
the language we speak ; and instances like the above are 
but the voice of nature re-asserting her invaded rights. 
Already has the study of Saxon — the only language which 
can give us a thorough acquaintance with English — been 
too long neglected. Already has this neglect produced 
evils, which, we fear, it is beyond the power of time to 
remedy. It remains to be seen, whether Englishmen will 
at length awake to a sense of their true position, and, 
though late, take such steps as can alone check the pro- 
gress of that decay, which, is slowly, but surely undermining 
the vital energy of our language. 

1 In one of the very early Saxon translations of the Gospels, this past 
tense occurs in the parable of the Sower, "Behold a man went forth to 
sow, and as he sowed," — "and ba he sew, &c." 



AND PAST PARTICIPLE. 117 

Another parallel case to the last is afforded in the past 
tense of the verb To mow. He would be a bold man, who 
would knowingly use mew instead of mowed. Yet, I have 
heard it done ; not, indeed by men, who know why they did 
it, but, as before, because it seemed natural. How perfectly 
arbitrary all this is, will perhaps be rendered more apparent 
by considering a verb where we have suffered the strong 
perfect to remain unaltered. The verb To grow, is to the 
point. How harsh would it sound to hear any one use 
such an expression as "he growed very tall;" "the grass 
growed fast after the rain ;" and so forth ! Yet, this would 
not be a whit less correct than sowed, &c, except that use 
has established the error in one case, but not in the other. 
Such corruptions as these can only have had their birth in 
the grossest ignorance of the grammar of our language, 
and, if they are to be prevented for the future, it will only 
be prevented by a simple recurrence to the only trust- 
worthy authority in all points of grammatical inflection, 
namely the Saxon language. 

While we confess the truth of those prophetic words 
(with which we shall close this chapter) uttered nearly two 
thousand years ago, by a great arbiter of his own language, 
we should recollect, that the changes which time produces 
ought not to run counter to, but in harmony with, the 
true principles of a nation's language. We willingly 
acknowledge, not only the necessity, but also the con- 
venience of that power of modifying, altering, or even 
inventing words adapted to the particular requirments of 
each successive age, and we shall only be justified in com- 
plaining, if, in these changes, the vital energy is found to 
suffer, or the true and essential principles of our language 
to be violated, through mere ignorance, and culpable neg- 
lect in acquainting ourselves with them. 

" It always has been, and always will be, lawful to coin 
a word, stamped with the impress of the current age. 
When the woods lose their leaves at the decline of the 
year, the oldest drop off first : just so is it with regard to 
words, those of great antiquity perish, and those of more 



118 OBSOLETE FORMS OF THE PAST TENSE. 

recent date, like young men, nourish and grow strong. 
Death claims both us and ours : the greatest achievements 
of mortals will perish, much less may the integrity and 
grace of their speech escape. Many words, which have 
already fallen into disuse, will hereafter be revived, and 
those which are now held in high esteem rejected, if only 
usage shall decree it — usage in whose power alone it is to 
act as arbiter on the laws and forms which regulate our 
speech." 1 

1 Hor. Ep. ad. Pisones. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LITEEAL CONTEACTIONS.-APOSTROPHAL GENITIVE.— EE- 
MAEKS ON SOME OF THE CHAEACTEEISTIC FEATUEES 
OF THE GENEVAN TEANSLATION AS COMPARED WITH 
OUE OWN. 

Wisdoms of Salomon, Chapter hit. 

" But though the righteous be preuented with death, yet fhall 
he be in reft. 

" For the honourable age is not that which is of long time, 
neither that which is meafured by the number of yeeres. 

" But wifdome is the gray haire, and an vndefiled 1 life is the 
old age. 

" He pleafed God and was beloued of him, fo that wheras he 
liued among imners, he tranllated him. 

" He was taken away, left wickednef fhould alter his vnder- 
ftanding, or deceit beguile his mind. 

" For wickedneiTe by bewitching obfcureth the things that are 
good, and the unftedfaftneffe of concupifcence peruerteth the 
fimple minde. 

" Though he was foone dead, yet fulfilled he much time. 

" For his foule pleafed God : therefore hafted he to take him 
away from wickedneiTe. 

" Yet the people fee and. underftand it not, and conlider no 
fuch things in their hearts, how that grace and mercie is vpon his 
Saints, and his prouidence ouer the elect. 

" Thus the righteous y* is dead, codemneth the vngodly which 
are liuing : and the youth y* is foone brought to an end, the long 
life of y e vnrighteous. 

" For they see the end of the wife but they underftand not 
what God hath deuifed for him, and wherefore the Lord hath 
preferued him in fafetie. 

1 The reader will observe the transposition of u and v. 



120 LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. 

" They fee him and defpife him, but the Lord will laugh them 
to fcorne. 

" So that they {hall fall hereafter without honour, and lhall 
haue a fhame among the dead, for euer more : for without any 
voice ihall he burft them and caft them down, and {hake them fro 
the foundations, Co that they {hall be vtterly Avafted, and they 
{hall be in forrow, and their memoriall {hall perifh. 

" So they being afraid, {hall remember their fmnes, and their 
owne wickednes {hall come before them to conuince them." 

Portion of Chapter vn. 

" God hath granted me to fpeake according to my minde, and 
to iudge worthily of the things that are giuen me : for he is the 
leader vnto wifdome, and the directer of the wife. 

" For in his hand are both we and our words and all wifdom, 
and the knowledge of the workes. 

" For hee hath giuen me the true knowledge of the things that 
are, so that I knowe how the world was made, and the powers of 
the elements. 

" The beginning and the end and the mids of the times, how 
y e times alter, and the change of y e feafons. 

" The courfe of y e yere, the fituation of the ftars. 

"The nature of liuing things, & the furioufnefof beafts, y e 
power of y e winds, & the imaginatios of men, y e diuerfities of 
plants, & the vertues of roots. 

" And all things both fecret and knowen do I know ; for wife- 
dome the worker of all things, hath taught me it. 

" For in her is y e {pirit of vnderftanding, which is holy, the 
only begotte, manifold, subtil, moueable, clere, vndefiled, euiclet, 
not hurtfull, louing the good, {harp which cannot be letted, doing 
good." 

EzeTciel xvi. 9. 

" I clothed thee alfo w* broydered worke, and {hod thee with 
badgers {kin." 

Salomon a Song, vi. 3. 

" Thou art beautifull, my loue, as Tirzah, comely as Jerufale, 
terrible as an army w* banners." 

I think the above quotations afford examples of all the 
contractions, or methods of contraction, which are to be 
found in the Breeches Bible, and which, consequently, we 
may fairly presume to have been in general use at this 



LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. 121 

time. There is no need for comment on them, being 
curious and arbitrary rather than instructive. The custom 
of dropping the consonants m or n, after a vowel, (the 
omission being marked by a hyphen placed over the vowel) 
sometimes so alters the appearance of a word as almost to 
prevent our recognizing it. Thus : — 



Strager 


for 


Stranger, 


Woma 


for 


Woman, 


The 


for 


Them and then, 


C ousel 


for 


Counsel, 


Amed 


for 


Amend, 



ard many others which might be named, strike the eye as 
very strange words. 1 

All these contractions, as they had no root in the 
fundamental principles of the language, but were the 
spurious invention of a corrupt age ; so, neither have they 
been able to maintain their ground. The same caprice, 
which called them into being in one age, swept them away 
in the following, and they have now entirely disappeared. 
But not the spirit itself. It still remained behind, one proof 
of which has, I dare say, already presented itself to 
my reader. He must have observed, that no instance of 
the apostrophal, or syncopated form of the possessive or 
genitive case of nouns substantive has occurred in the quo- 
tations I have made so far from the Breeches Bible. In fact 
there is not one to be found. Thus we learn incidentally, 
that the apostrophal, or contracted genitive, dates at least 
no further back than the close of the 16th century; and 
that, so far from being founded on any fundamental prin- 
ciple of our language, it is, like the contractions noticed 
above,, a mere capricious usage, (not, indeed, without its 
recommendation), and so liable, like them, to be again 

1 "What may have given rise to these contractions I am unable to say, 
unless it may have been the desire for brevity in writing. It is scarcely 
probable, that they had anything to do with the pronunciation of the 
words so contracted. 



122 LITERAL CONTRACTIONS. 

swept away by the whim of posterity. 1 Let us briefly 
consider the nature and object of this contraction. 



THE APOSTROPHAL FORM OP THE POSSESSIVE CASE. 

The termination es, or s, affixed to nouns substantive, 
to indicate possession, or procession, is a traditional rem- 
nant of Anglo Saxon inflexion; a large body of nouns 
substantive, in that language, forming their genitive, or 
possessive case in this manner. When, in the confusion 
which succeeded the Norman Conquest, the distribution of 
substantives according to their proper declensions was 
forgotten, the casual terminations, which distinguished 
those declensions, likewise disappeared, with the exception 
of the genitive case of one of them. And this sole survi- 
ving termination of the genitive, or possessive case, from 
having belonged in the Anglo Saxon, to a certain class of 
what are now called nouns substantive only, came at 
length to be applied indiscriminately to all. 2 Thus, it may 
appear as correct to speak of " a week's suspense," as " a 
kingdom's wealth :" of " a youth's intemperance," as " a 



1 " Payrest of fayre, O lady min, Venus 

Daughter of Jove and spouse of Vulcanus, 
Thou glader of the mount of Citheron, 
Por thilke love thou haddest to Adon 
Have pitee on my bitter teres smert, 
And take myn humble praier to thin herte." 

The Knightes Tale, line 2224. 

2 In Prance, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, where the languages are a 
compound of the Teutonic and Latin elements principally, the inflexion of 
nouns has been still more effectually destroyed. Not only are there no ob- 
lique cases, but even the nominative case of the noun itself is formed, 
in many instances, from an oblique case of the Latin noun. 

The Italians have, it is true, preserved, in a more or less faithful 
manner, the Latin nominative. But the Spaniards and Portuguese have 
adopted the accusative form ; while in the Provincal, M. Raynouard has 
endeavoured to shew, that the nouns were formed from Latin substan- 
tives by depriving them of those terminations which marked their cases; 



THE USE OF THE APOSTROPHE. VJ3 

smith's anvil/' &c. : and so indeed in English it may be; 
yet, from the analogy and teaching of the Anglo Saxon, 
it appears, that only the latter, in each of the above com- 
parisons, is correct; the nouns "week" and "youth," &c, 
never having made their genitive in s, or es. Nor must we 
suppose, that the older and uncontr acted forms of the 
genitive, such for instance as " smithes," " kingdomes," &c, 
as they would have been written in the Breeches Bible, are 
a whit less correct, than bur apostrophal form now in use. 
For the principal utility of the apostrophe seems to lie in 
its enabling the eye at once to detect whether the genitive 
singular, or plural, is intended. 1 It does not appear to 
influence the pronunciation, and can, therefore, be of no 



that is, from the root. Thus, from abbat-em was formed abb at ; from 
infant-em, infant, &c. I have no acquaintance with either the Spanish or 
Portuguese languages, and am indebted to M. de Sismondi for what I 
have said respecting them, as also for the following examples which will 
serve as illustrations : 

Latin. Italian. Spanish. Portuguese. 

Oculi occhi ojos (oculos) oilhos. 

Cceli cieli cielos ceos. 

Gaudium gioia gozo gozo. 

1 If it could be shewn, that, previous to the introduction of the Apos- 
trophe, the universal and acknowledged form of the genitive had been in 
es, and not s, then it might have been urged, that the apostrophe was 
introduced for the purpose of abbreviation. Thus, if the genitive of camel, 
&c, had been cameles, then certainly it would have been both more 
convenient and euphonious to have spoken of "camel's hair," than 
" cameles hair." But this was not the case, as the following passage from 
the Genevan Version will show : 

"And this John had his garment of camels haire, and a girdle of 
skinne about his loynes."— Matt. in. 4. 

Euphony had been consulted long previous to the invention of the 
apostrophal form of the genitive; its invention therefore did not confer 
any advantage in this respect. "Where the old genitive in es is found, as 
in kingdomes for kingdoms, it is because the nominative case was spelt 
with the final e, and not because the genitive was formed by adding another 
syllable to the noun. The es would not be pronounced in kingdomes any 
more than in our more modern kingdom's. 



12-4 THE USE OP THE APOSTROPHE. 

assistance to the ear. 1 For instance, if we speak of " the 
Church's Ritual/' the syncopated e is not the less sounded 
in the pronunciation of Church's, because it is syncopated ; 
nor, on the other hand, in such instances as these, "a 
man's actions," " a woman's fidelity," does the apostrophe 
indicate the omission of e; for this simple reason, the e 
was not according to English usage, previous to the intro- 
duction of the apostrophe, missing. 2 

The use of the apostrophal genitive is, no doubt after 
all, of some value as an artificial adjunct to our Language. 
Alas ! that it should require so miserable a shift as this to 
repair the damage it has sustained. But, since we have 
had the ill luck to lose our Donet, let us be thankful, that 
artifice has in some measure made up for our loss. Only 
let us be chary, as well as charitable, in what we say about 

1 For example, " the princes power," " his friends advice," would beget 
an ambiguity as to number, which the apostrophe would at once dispel; 
since its position before, or after the final s at once indicates whether the 
singular or plural number be intended. 

2 The following is what Mr. Thomas Tyrwhitt says on the use of the 
apostrophal genitive in some words:— 

"As to the present method of expressing the genitive cases of nouns 
ending in s, by adding another s, with a mark of syncope, as Peneus's, 
Theseus's, Venus's, &c. It seems absurd, whether the addition be intended 
to be pronounced, or not. In the first case, the e should not be cut out; 
in the second, the s is quite superfluous. But the absurdity of this practice 
is most striking, when the genitives of monosyllable nouns are thus written : 
an ox's horns ; an ass's ears ; a fish's tail ; St. James's Park ; notwithstanding 
that the e, which is thus directed to be cut out, is constantly and necessarily 
to be pronounced, as if the several words were written at length: oxes, 
asses, fishes, Jameses." 

This is quite true; but Mr. Tyrwhitt escapes the question of am- 
biguity by the preposition of the singular article, or by the nature of his 
examples otherwise. Let us reject the indefinite article (in this case defi- 
nite as to the number of the substantive) and take, either no article, or 
the article the : we shall then see, that an ambiguity arises both to the eye 
and the ear. "The asses ears," may mean the ears of one ass, or more. 
" The fishes (for fishes is as correctly the plural of fish as dishes of dish) 
scales," the scales of one fish, or of more. In these, and similar instances, 
the utility of the apostrophe is apparent; though, at the same time, I 
should think it doubtful whether this was the true motive of its introduc- 
tion into our language. 



THE USE OF THE APOSTROPHE. 125 

English Grammar. Let us not be told what is right and 
wrong in speaking and writing by dogmatic pedagogues, 
who, having lived only in their own days, have no con- 
science of better, and would fain have us believe, that 
usage imparts to their doctrines the sanctity of truth. To 
usage, indeed, we must and do conform, for it has become 
our inexorable fate; but let us not take usage for our 
standard in the investigation of essential truth, nor suffer 
necessity to assume the garb of reason. Rather like the 
captain, whose vessel having slipped her cable is now borne 
by the force of the current he scarce knows whither, let us 
candidly acknowledge our unfortunate position, but still do 
our best to keep our craft together, and repair, so far as 
possible, in the calm the damage it sustained in the storm. 

OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENEVAN VERSION IN POINT 
OE TRANSLATION. 

I believe, though I am not quite certain, that I pro- 
mised my reader some remarks on the comparative merits 
of the Genevan and our own Version in point of transla- 
tion. I could well wish to have avoided this invidious task 
altogether; and that for several reasons. I am not afraid, 
indeed, that our own Version might suffer from the com- 
parison on the whole ; but I think, that anything which 
tends unnecessarily, or unprontably, to throw the slighest 
discredit upon it, and so undermine the reverence and 
authority it has so justly earned, is a thing of itself to be 
specially avoided. It would be a mere idle conceit on our 
part to attempt to add to, or detract from, the reputation 
our present Version enjoys, either in point of translation, 
or composition ; for the subject is one now beyond the 
reach of individual criticism. But, in addition to all this, 
my reader must long ago have detected the real object I 
have had in view in perusing my old Bible ; he must have 
seen, that it has been rather to draw out a comparison 
between the English in that day and our own, than 
between the relative merits of two Bible translations ; and 
that consequently I should be likely to pay but small at- 
tention to passages which presented nothing akin to the 
object of my search. 



126 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 

From the brief and disconnected nature of the extracts 
I have made from the Genevan Version, it would be too 
great an assumption to suppose, that any very clear concep- 
tion of its general character could have been gained. Yet 
I think the reader cannot fail to have been struck with a 
clumsiness of style, and a want of finish, from which our 
Version is nearly, if not quite, free. Nor should this sur- 
prise us, when we take into consideration the hurried 
manner in which the Genevan Version was executed, and 
the difficulties which attended that execution; that it was 
the work of a very few men, and they intent rather on 
supplying spiritual food to the half-famished legions, who 
had just broken from their necks the slavish yoke of 
Rome, and were now crying out for the bread of Life, than 
to produce a translation whose literary merits might stamp 
it a master-piece of the English language. This being the 
case, we can be neither surprised nor disappointed, that its 
style of composition is less elaborate and polished, than 
that of our own. But leaving this conclusion, which after 
all is one of trivial importance to us, to be supported by 
the extracts already given, we turn to consider another 
point, in which it seems to us the Genevan Version con- 
trasts favourably with our own. It is in point of translation. 
The passages I intend to bring forward in support of my 
position, though few, are still, I think, sufficient to support 
it. I would have them regarded, not so much for their 
intrinsic importance above others which might be adduced 
in support of the same argument, as for their generic cha- 
racter, and as typical of that spirit which actuated the 
labours of the translators. 

In the gospel of St. Mark, ch. ix. 47., I find a render- 
ing which seems far less likely to create misunderstanding, 
I do not say in the minds of educated people, but of the 
mass of readers generally, than the rendering of the same 
passage in our own Version. It runs thus : — 

"And if thine eie cause thee to offend, plucke it out: it is 
better for thee to goe into the kingdome of God with one eie, 
than hauing two eies to be cast into hell fire." 



OF THE GENEVAN VERSION. 127 

No misconception could possibly arise here: while the 
passage as it reads in our Version "if thine eye offend thee" 
only yields its true meaning by a wordy explanation that 
to offend means, to cause thee to offend. Some of my 
readers are doubtless aware, that the word in the original, 
rendered by " offend," signifies to place a stumbling block 
in the way, and so to occasion a fall. 1 Now, whatever may 
have been the acquired meaning of the verb, To offend, 
when our translators used it, (and from that which it bore in 
the earlier quotation above, it seems fair to infer, that its 
meaning did not differ much from the present one) it is at 
least certain, I think, that neither its classical meaning, nor 
that of our own day, justifies the use to which it is put 
in our own Version. 

The following instance is one of a similar nature to the 
last, and seems to me strongly indicative of the different 
characters of the two translations. I place them in juxta 
position, that the reader may himself strike the com- 
parison. 2 

Present Rendering. 

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow 
shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the 
day is the evil thereof." — Matt. vi. 34. 

Genevan Rendering. 

" Care not then for the morow for the morow shall care for 
it felfe : the day hath enough with his owne griefe." — Ibid. 

1 2/cai/oaXi^tt), from a-KavSaXov, a stumbling block, or cause of offence, 
from o-zcd^a), To limy. Is it possible, that the translators attempted to 
transfer, for the first time, the rich meaning of the Greek word, to 
another, which, neither as a Latin word (offendo), nor an English one 
To offend, could legitimately receive it ? If so, the attempt was a failure, 
or at least has become one. 

2 Orig. Mil ovv p.epL/ui.vri<rVTe eh ti\v avpiov' i] yap avpiov fiepi^vncrei 

to. kavTTjs. apKCTov ttj fip.epa i) Kaic'ia. avTTjs. The reader must judge for 
himself whether the dative, ry np-epa, which has no reference to future 
time whatever, is appropriately rendered in English by "unto the day," 
which seems naturally to refer the mind to the morrow, ti)v avpiov, the 
last mentioned. 



128 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES. 

I ask first, are the impressions, which these renderings 
make on the mind, identical? If they are, I have done. 
If not, let us consider them further. 

The whole question turns on the meaning, which is 
conveyed in our Version by the words "sufficient unto 
the day." Unto what day? the present, or some future 
day, — or the morrow in short ? And to our mind, both the 
context, and the wording "unto the day," unmistakably 
suggest some future day. So that the meaning of the 
whole passage would seem to be as follows : " that pro- 
vision against a future day of trial is of itself an evil, and, 
therefore, to be avoided, as constituting an additional trial 
to the trials of the morrow." Such seems the impression 
which our rendering leaves on the mind. We have been 
told, often enough, that the injunction "take no thought 
for the morrow," implies no anxious thought. Yet surely, 
if provision against the trials of the morrow be in itself an 
evil, it were well to take no thought whatever, but abso- 
lutely to leave the morrow to take thought for the things 
of itself. 1 Happily, the words of the original demand no 
such construction as this. It is the present day which we 
are commanded not to burden with the cares of the future. 

I would not assert that the passage, as it stands in our 
own Version, is absolutely incapable of the construction, 
which it bears in the Original and the Genevan Versions ; 
still less would I say, that our own rendering is not sup- 
ported by the Original. On the contrary, it would be diffi- 
cult to imagine a much closer imitation of the passage, as it 
stands in the Greek, than the words, " sufficient unto the 
day is the evil thereof" afford. So literal, indeed, is the 
translation, that though written in English characters and 

1 The word in the Greek, /xepifivdw, which is rendered in our version 
by " To take thought," would perhaps, be better expressed by the verb, To 
distract; "do not distract yourselves about the morrow." "Curse," it has 
been well said, " animum divorse trahunt," " cares distract the mind," and 
the same feeling, or sentiment is bound up in the composition of the 
verb fiepi/wda), or rather, perhaps, the noun substantive p.epip.va, which is 
derived from the verb /Meipa), To divide. Hence, by etymology, p.epip.vu 
is that, which like anxious care distracts the mind. 



0E THE GENEVAN VERSION. 129 

words, it continues in construction and idiom as much 
Greek as ever. And the result, as might have been an- 
ticipated, has been to introduce into the English an 
ambiguity, against which the more grammatical, and de- 
licately organized structure of the Greek was alone a 
sufficient safeguard. The transference of idiom, or a due 
allowance for the different idiomatic usages of languages, 
as much requires attention, on the part of translators, as 
the grammar of the languages itself. 

Let us look briefly into the context of tlie passage, and 
endeavour to learn what was the lesson our Saviour was 
endeavouring to inculcate. It is clear, he wished to show 
his disciples the folly of giving way to anxious thought 
about the future. "Which of you by taking care," he had 
said only a short time before, "is able to adde one cubit e 
unto his stature ? And why care ye for raiment ? Learne 
how the lilies of the field doe growe : they are not wearied 
neither spin." And then he adds, " But seeke yee first 
the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse, and all these 
(minor) things shall be ministered unto you." In conclu- 
sion, he warns them against that anxiety about the future 
which is the offspring of distrust in their heavenly Father, 
and tells them, they will find each day bring with it its 
own load of cares and sorrows, which they must not seek 
to augment by adding to them the imaginary evils of the 
future. Such seems the obvious meaning to be gathered 
from the Genevan rendering; a rendering, which it seems 
to us is more accordant with the original and the context, 
than our own ; while, at the same time, it makes a more 
powerful appeal to the feelings and experience of our every 
day life. 1 

In the following passage, though not in itself of much 
importance, the balance again seems to favour the freer 
Genevan translation : — 

" Yee have heard of the patience of Job, and have knowen 
what end the Lord made." — James v. 11. 

1 It also brings out the meaning of the injunction, "take no thought," 
in a very clear and forcible manner. 

K 



130 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 

My reader will recollect, that our version reads " the 
end of the Lord," instead of "what end the Lord made." 1 
I think there can be no doubt which of these two readings 
is the better. Indeed, " the end of the Lord/ 5 is not Eng- 
lish, and, like another instance we have noticed, requires 
to be paraphrased before it becomes intelligible. 

The passage, Matth. xxm. 24, which in our version is 
incorrectly rendered " which strain at a gnat and swallow 
a camel," but more correctly in the Genevan version, by 
the words, "which straine out a gnat, and swallow a 
camel," 2 has no direct bearing on my argument. But 
the examples I have quoted, though they are few in num- 
ber, are I think, sufficient to justify our arriving at one 
great and important conclusion, with respect to the dif- 
ferent spirits which animated the translators of the Genevan 
and our own version ; namely, that the translators of the 
former used greater license, and followed the original with 
less of verbatim accuracy, than those of the latter ; that 
the effect of this has been to render the former more per- 
spicuous, generally speaking, to the mass of readers, and 
freer from obscurity, than our own rendering, where, by 
a perhaps too close and timid copying of the original, the 
translators have not at all times succeeded in emancipating 
their translation from that ambiguity which Greek idiom 
will sometimes introduce in English. 

It is easy to see, that much might be said on either 
side of this argument. 

What the Genevan translators gained by the trans- 
parency, if I may use such a word to express my meaning, 
of their translation, it is possible they might lose in ac- 
curacy : and, on the other hand, what little our own 
version loses by its occasional obscurity, may be amply 

1 Orig. to tc'\os Kvplov. literally, "the end of the Lord." But, to 
suppose this a translation, is to suppose the English genitive case as wide 
in its signification as the Greek. 

2 See this passage discussed in Dean Trench's " English, Past and Pre- 
sent." Note to p. 245. 



OF THE GENEVAN VERSION. 131 

compensated by its close and truthful resemblance to the 
original. We shall do well to recollect, too, the different 
circumstances under which each translation was made. 
While the Genevan version ^ as the work of but two, or 
three, men, whose views on religion and theology coin- 
cided ; our own, on the contrary, engaged the labour of a 
very much larger body of men, amongst whom, it is absurd 
to suppose, no diversity of opinion to have existed. 1 And, 
in cases where this diversity of opinion manifested itself, it 
is clear, that the readiest way of over-ruling it would be 
by rigidly adhering to the original. Nor does it appear 
there was much to be regretted in this method of settling 
differences \ for the error, if any resulted, was in the right 
direction. No party could feel its own particular views 
impunged, nor, what was of far greater importance, succeed 
in wresting any passage in favour of them ; while the ren- 
dering adopted was throughout so close as almost to 
constitute it in English a fac-simile of the original Greek. 
And while we are proud, and justly so, of this spirit of 
integrity, which characterizes our version, the regret may 
not be unpardonable, that, owing to it, some few obscure 
constructions have crept in to puzzle the simple reader. 

1 The number of men engaged in the task was forty-seven. They were 
divided into six companies; two of which sat at Westminister, two at 
Cambridge, and two at Oxford. According to rule (9) of the code which 
regulated their labours, as soon as one company had dispatched a book, 
they were to "send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and 
judiciously." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ON THE MEANING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 

I am not aware, that any attempt has hitherto heen 
made to explain the meaning and construction of the word 
than. I, therefore, feel somewhat diffident in offering, for 
the first time, such an explanation to the public. For I 
am assured, that, if there yet remains amongst us any 
regard for the accurate determination of the principles of 
our Language, — any censorship over its integrity, — my 
observations and arguments will have to pass through 
the ordeal of rigorous criticism. 

But the man whose intentions are honest, and whose 
motives are sincere, has, after all, but little cause to dread 
the scrutiny of the critic : for, if his strictures are just and 
true, they will carry conviction, first to the mind of him 
whose work is being tested ; and if they are false, they lose 
their sting, and call rather for pity or contempt, than anger 
or concern. As I am conscious of no personal motive, I 
may the less anxiously await the trial, — the more con- 
tentedly abide the result. 

The abstract nature of this enquiry will, I fear, tend to 
rob it of some of the interest, which it might otherwise 
possess, and which I feel it deserves. Yet, this objection 
is one which lies with almost equal weight against all 
questions relating to the economy of words ; and on this 
account alone to refuse such questions our attention would 
argue an indifference to the forms of correct speech, and 
the rules of true construction, which I should be loath to 
assume. 



MEANING AND CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 133 

There is, perhaps, no word in our daily vocabulary, so 
frequently used, so little understood, as the word than ; 
no word whose original signification has been so entirely 
obscured by the encrustation of time, and so entirely neg- 
lected by the excavators of the English language. 

For a length of time before the present solution 
occurred to me, I felt, that the unsatisfactory state of our 
knowledge of this word was not only a thing to be de- 
plored, but one, also, which demanded our careful attention. 
I viewed it in the light of a disgrace, to be constantly 
using a word most useful, indeed, — nay, indispensable in 
our daily intercourse, — but which, beyond this, seemed 
shrouded in inscrutable mystery. The word had become 
a mere sound significant, whose office was definite, and its 
effect uniform, producing a fixed idea, (if I may use the 
word in this sense ; perhaps better, operating consistently) , 
in the mind, yet revealing nothing of the mechanism 
whereby the effect was produced, the impression formed. 

Whether, or not, the explanation, I shall presently 
offer, be sufficient to remove this objection, I must leave 
to my reader himself to determine. By way of caution, 
lest he should form too great expectations, I would have 
him remember the very early period to which it is ne- 
cessary to revert, for the supply of our materials; a 
period, since which, it would be strange indeed, judging 
from the analogy of language in other respects, if no 
modifications in usage, and construction had taken place. 

The following is what Dr. Johnson says respecting the 
word : — 

" Than. adv. [Sanne, Sax.] a particle placed in comparison 
after the comparative adjective, or adverb, noting a less degree 
of the quality compared in the word that follows than." 1 



1 Even this is only conditionally true, as may readily be seen by 
taking one or two examples, and applying the above test. 
JEx. "Wisdom is more precious than rubies." 
The quality compared in this example is clearly (pretium) price ; and 



134 ON THE MEANING AND 

To inform us that than is a particle placed in com- 
parison after the comparative degree of the adjective, or 
adverb, I suppose amounts to much the same as telling us 
what we all knew before. A particle, too, is a term more 
convenient, than explicit ; inasmuch as it is useful in the 
arts and sciences, as well as in supplying a name to some 
part of speech, in more languages than one, of which 
nothing is known, and so at the same time affording a 
fitting pretext to hide our ignorance. 

Richardson was not less lucid than Johnson ; but he 
had this advantage, that he expanded his remarks into two 
or three times the bulk, which had sufficed for his pre- 
decessor. 

That Mr. Home Tooke has offered us no remarks on 
the word, is surprising. It could scarcely have escaped 
his attention ; more especially as he approached very near 
the heart of the difficulty, when he attempted to explain 
the origin and meaning of the definite article the, and 
the demonstrative pronoun that. 

And now, since it seems we shall meet with but small 
help in our difficulty at the hands of those, from whom we 
have been accustomed to expect it, let us fling aside these 
artificial supports, and strike out boldly for the shore. 

Psalm xix. 9, 10. 

" The fear of the Lord is cleane and en dure th for ever : the 
judgments of the Lord are trueth: they are righteous altogether. 

"And more to be desired then golde, yea, then much fine 
golde : sweeter also then hony and the hony combe." 

Psalm cxix. 98, 103. 
"By thy comniiidements thou hast made me wiser the 1 mine 
enemies : for they are ever with me. 

it is as clear, that this quality Is less in the word rubies, which follows 

than, than in the word wisdom, which precedes it. But take another 

example :— 

" Solitude is less irksome, than the company of a braggart." 

In this case irksomeness is the quality compared : but, instead of being 

less in the word which follows than, it is, on the contrary, greater. 
1 Contraction for then. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 135 

. " How sweete are thy promises unto my mouth ! yea, more 
then hony unto my mouth." 

It would be easy to multiply quotations, but these will 
suffice to shew, that, at the time we are now considering, 
then was commonly written where now we should write 
than. With us then and than are words of widely different 
signification : so different, indeed, that we are apt to over- 
look the fact, that in reality they are the same word, 
differing only in acquired signification and spelling. In 
the early days of English literature thanne, or than, was 
commonly used for then. 

" Thanne drough I me among drapiers, 

My donet 1 to lerne, 

To draw the liser 2 along, 

The lenger it seemed." 

Vision of Pierce Ploughman, line 2989. 
" Thanne loked up a lunatik 

A leene thyng with-alle, 

And kneeling to the king, 

Clergially 3 he seide, 
' Crist kepe thee, sire kyng, 

And the kyng-ryche 4 

And lene 5 thee lede thy lond, 

So leaute thee lovye, 

And for thi rightful rulyng 

Be rewarded in hevene.'" 

Ibid, line 245. 

So also in Chaucer, than and thanne are used, as we 
should say, adverbially for then. 

" Now was there than a justice in that toun, 
That governor was of that regioun." 

Doctoures Tale. 

1 Grammar, or first principles ; from iElius Donatus, a E.oman Gram- 
marian, whose elementary work on the Latin language was commonly read 
in Schools. 

2 Probably the list. 

3 Learnedly. 

4 Kingdom. The Saxon word rice, signifying dominion, still survives 
in the word bishopric. 

5 Literally, " lend thee," i. e. " grant thee to lede the lond." Lene for 
lend, is still common. 



13() ON THE MEANING AND 

"A lecherous thing is wine, and dronkenesse 
Is full of striving and of wretchednesse, 
dronken man, disfigured is thy face, 
Sour is thy breth, foul art thou to embrace ; 
And thurgh thy dronken nose semeth the soun, 1 
As though thou saidest ay, Sampsoun, Sampsoun ; 
And yet, God wot, Sampsoun drank never no wine, 
Thou fallest, as it were a stiked swine: 
Thy tonge is lost, and all thine honest cure, 
For dronkenesse is veray sepulture 
Of marines wit, and his discretion. 
In whom that drink hath domination, 
He can no conseil kepe, it is no drede. 2 
Now kepe you fro the white and fro the rede, 
And namely fro the white wine of Lepe, 
That is to sell in Fish strete, and in Chepe. 
This wine of Spaigne crepeth subtilly 
In other wines growing fast by. 
Of which there riseth swiche fumositee, 
That whan a man hath dronken draughtes three, 
And weneth that he be at home in Chepe, 
He is in Spaigne, right at the town of Lepe, 
Not at the Rochell, ne at Bardeux town ; 
And thanne wol he say Sampsoun, Sampsoun." 

The Pardoneres Tale. 

Than was also used in the sense it now has, for the 
purpose of comparison : — 

" For though a widewe hadde but a shoo, 
(So pleasant was his In principio) 
Yet wold he have a ferthing or he went, 
His purchas was wel better than his rent. 
Somewhat he lisped for his wantonnesse, 
To make his English swete upon his tonge; 3 
And in his harping whan that he had songe, 
His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright, 
As don the sterres in a frosty night." 

Prologue to Cant. Tales. 



1 "Appeareth the sound." 

2 Drede signifies fear, doubt. "It is no drede," I suppose, means 
"there is no doubt." 

3 I take this for an undesigned coincidence, to show that, even so late 
a.s the 14th century, it was the custom to fill the vacancies, which occurred 
in the Religious Orders, by Priests invited from Normandy. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 137 

The inference to be drawn from these examples is 
simple, and clear enough. It appears from them, that 
than and then have, at different times, borne precisely the 
same meaning ; namely, those which we now attribute to 
the adverb of time then, and to the word than, be it what 
it may. In the time of Chaucer, than was used indis- 
criminately both for than and then, 1 while, by the middle 
of the 16th century, then had come to be used for the 
same purposes. 

What, then, it becomes our duty to ask, is the origin, 
or origins, of these words, which seem alternately to have 
mounted guard for each other ? There is but one source 
to which we can look for any information on this point, 
and that source, I need not say, is the Anglo Saxon. To 
the Anglo Saxon, then, we must turn, and I trust the 
necessity will be a sufficient excuse in the eyes of my 
reader, for bringing before him one, or two passages in 
Anglo Saxon, which he may not be able to understand, 
but which I will do my best to make intelligible to him. 
For convenience, I have selected the passages from Mr. 
Barnes's "Anglo Saxon Delectus," with one exception, 
which, if I mistake not, is to be found in Mr. Thorpe's 
" Analecta Anglo Saxonica." 

" Sume tunglu habbaS scyrtran hwyrft \>onne sume habbon." 
Translation : 

Some stars have a shorter revolution than others. 

" Gebeorhlicre ys me faran to ea mid scype rnynuni home 
faran mid manegum seypum on huntinge hranas. 

" For hwi swa ? 

" For>am leofre ys me gefon fisc \>mne ic moeg ofslean, &o." 
Translation : 

It is safer for me to go on the river with my ship, than (J?cenne) 
to go with many ships hunting whales. 

For why so ? 

Because I would rather take a fish which (>cene) I am able 
to kill, &o. 

1 It is worthy of remark, that the form "then" is rarely met with, (I 
dare not say never) either in the " Vision and Creed of Pierce Ploughman," 
or in Chaucer. Its place is supplied at one time by than, at another by tJw. 



138 ON THE MEANING AND 

There are other uses to which fcenne, or fonne, our 
English than, was put in the Anglo Saxon, but I wish to 
avoid confusion, and therefore decline to notice them in 
the text at present. 1 

But now conies the question, what is the Saxon word 
foenne, or fonne ? for of course no one in his senses will 
for a moment question, that here we have the etymology 
of the word than. 

The Anglo Saxon article is thus declined : — 

Mas. Fern. Neut. 

Nominative... Se Seo' foet. 

Genitive fees ]?cere fees. 

Dative fa'm fcere fa'm. 

Accusative ... fone or fcene )?a' feet. 

But the Article se, seo', feet, was used, not only as we 
now use the definite article the, but also relatively, where 
we should now use the pronouns who, ivhich, or what. 2 
Indeed, the second of the above extracts affords an in- 
stance of this relative use of the article. 

This is the inflexion usually followed. 3 

Now, referring to the masculine accusative, we find 
]?one, or foene, which the Saxons slightly altered for the 
purpose of distinction, by doubling the n, and then used 
in exactly the same manner as we now use then and than. 



1 See Appendix to this page. 

2 " The article or definitive Se, Seo', >oet, are generally used for the 
relative who, which."— Dr. Bosworth's Anglo Saxon Grammar, §. 33. 

3 Professor Rask also gives, what he considers a separate ablative 
case, " >y seems justly to be received as a proper ablativus instrutnenti, as 
it occurs so often in this character, even in the Masculine gender, as 
mid >y, a>e, with that oath L. In. 53; and in the same place, in the 
dative, on >oem, a^e in that oath." 

Mas. Fern. Neut. 

Ablative.... \>y >cere >y. 

Mr. Thorpe's Translation, §. 147. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 139 

. It is very clear, therefore, that we must not seek any 
explanation of the grammatical structure of than on Eng- 
lish ground solely. The question is now become one of 
abstract grammatical structure. We have shown, I think, 
that the word than is the same word, used in the same 
manner, as the Anglo Saxon ]?oenne, which is the accusa- 
tive of the relative pronoun se, seo', ]?oet, answering to our 
ivho or which. We have now to investigate the construc- 
tion of this Relative Pronoun, — the reason why it ever 
came to be used for the purpose of comparison. It will be 
observed, that we are not now pursuing an etymological 
enquiry as to the origin and meaning of ]?cet, or ]?cenne, 
this Mr. Tooke has already attempted, with what success 
my reader shall presently judge for himself. It is our 
present object to discover what operation of the human 
mind it was, — what method of reasoning, — which led to 
the Relative Pronoun boenne, and, consequently, our Eng- 
lish than, being put to the use we find them. And this 
object, I apprehend, will be best attained by taking some 
example and operating upon it, in such a manner as the 
above considerations suggest. I will take the simplest 
instance I can find to begin with. 
Example 1. 

Where the relative than relates to a substantive : 
" Virtue confers more happiness than riches" 

Now let us substitute for than (or ]?cenne as it would 
have been written in Anglo Saxon) its meaning as a 
Relative Pronoun. The sentence becomes, if we transpose 
the clauses, 

"Than (i. e. which happiness understood) riches (confers 
understood) virtue confers more happiness." 1 

Here it will be seen, that the Relative Pronoun than 
agrees with the noun Substantive happiness, that being the 
quality compared, and that both are in the Accusative or 
Objective case, governed, as it might seem, by the verb 

1 In this and the following examples, it will be found, that, on leaving 
out the words between the brackets, the sentence remains exactly as before, 
except for the transposition. 



110 ON THE MEANING AND 

confers, which is understood from the other clause. But 
the example I have taken is one of the simplest, and 
easiest kind, and it will, perhaps, be objected, that this 
process of manipulation could not be applied in every case. 
Before entering on the consideration of other examples, 
where certainly the construction is less easy, and the 
applied reasoning less perspicuous, I would say, once for 
all, that I do not think there is any obligation to account 
for all those usages, which, like an after or second growth, 
have sprung up in the course of time from the original 
stock. We know how arbitrary custom occasionally is ; and 
it ought not to surprise us, that we do not always find in 
this second offspring the same individuality of character, 
the precise lineaments, which marked the parent. We 
know this is the case in the natural world, why should it 
not be the same in the metaphysical. But we do not say 
this by way of deprecation ; nor do we intend to shirk the 
question, because it is, in some of its aspects, rather a 
difficult one. It shall, so far as lies in our power, be faith- 
fully put : the reader himself must use his discretion, and 
honestly test the weight of our arguments. I do not say, 
that in every usage of the word than the above reasoning 
is equally applicable, for there are some, where the usage 
is, we think, incorrect. Such are those where than is 
written for except, or but (both verbs), for example : — 

" Of all his friends lie chose none other than the man whose 
friendship had been tested by adversity." 

Here than, it should seem, is incorrectly 1 written for 
but, except, or besides. Yet, generally speaking, I think the 
same train of reasoning, more or less perfectly conceived, 
will be found to lie at the bottom of all constructions in 
which than has rightly a place. Of course, it is of essential 

1 By incorrectly, I only mean, that in such case the construction does 
not seem favourable to the use of than. In other words, it would be better 
if than were replaced by except, or but; for then the construction would 
be perfectly simple. Thus : " Except (*. e. take out) the man whose friend- 
ship had been tested by adversity, he chose none other of all his friends." 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 141 

importance, that the objects, or qualities, of comparison 
be kept clearly in view : otherwise, we shall lose sight of 
that to which the relative, than, has reference ; and, if this 
be the case, the point of the construction is lost. It would, 
perhaps, be tedious to endeavour to obtain types of all the 
different forms of speech, in which than is found. The 
examples, I have given below, have been taken at random, 
from amongst many others, to all of which I found the 
reasoning no less applicable. 

Example 2. 
Where the relative than, relates to an adjective : 

" The pomj) of death is more terrible than death itself" 

Bacons Essays. Of Death. 

Here the quality compared, or presented for com- 
parison in the antitheses, "the pomp of death," and "death 
itself," is, to use a barbarism, terribleness. To this quality, 
then, the relative than, relates. We may see this more 
clearly, if we put it thus : — 

Than (i. e. how terrible sover, or to ichat pcenne degree 

terrible is) death itself, the pomp of death is more terrible. 

In the following example, the comparison is what 

might, perhaps, not inaptly, be called a comparison of 

impersonals. 

Example 3. 
W r here the relative of than, relates to an adverb : 
11 It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than 
such an opinion as is unworthy of Him" 

Bacons Essays. Of Superstition. 
Here the advantages, or disadvantages, of entertaining 
certain opinions respecting the Deity are contrasted, and, 
at the same time, an assertion is made with regard to them. 
Bearing this in mind, and making the requisite subau- 
dition to which than (]?cenne, )?oene, which, or what) 
relates, namely advantage, or position, the sentence be- 
comes, 

" Than (i. e. what advantage it would be to have) such 
an opinion (of God) as is unworthy of Him, it were better 
to have no opinion of God." 



143 ON THE MEANING AND 

It were easy to multiply examples, but these, I think, 
are sufficient to serve the purpose of illustration. I leave 
my reader to amuse himself by applying the same method 
in other cases, which may occur to him; that so he may 
test the truth of a theory, which in its application to the 
more simple constructions of than, (such as that afforded 
in Example 1), cannot admit of doubt; nor, indeed, in 
others more complicated, if we allow those considerations 
their due weight, which are concomitants of both the early 
growth, and more mature developement of language. 

But let us turn for a moment to analyse the construc- 
tion we have attributed to than in the preceding examples. 
Of what does it consist? We shall find, that it divides 
itself into two separate clauses. 

1st. The Absolute Clause. 

2nd. The Assertive Clause. 

The Absolute Clause serves to introduce a certain con- 
dition, or position. 

The Assertive Clause, referring to the Absolute Clause, 
makes an assertion with respect to it. 

But this will appear clearer by experimenting on some 
example. Take the following : — 

" The ditties of the ancient poets, had no greater dispro- 
portion with their subject, than our songs of famous victories 
have with theirs ; or other passionate ditties, with their com- 
poser's affections ; albeit, he that hath experience of love, or 
abundant grief, or joy, will speak in another dialect than ordi- 
narily he useth, without any touch of affectation." 

Dr. Jackson on " The Sacred Origin and Right Use of Poetry, 
with the Manner of its Corruption by the later Poets." 

• Transposing, and substituting as before, the passage 
becomes, 

Than (i. e. ]?cenne, )?cene, which or what disproportion, 
understood) our songs of famous victories have with theirs, 

ABSOLUTE CLAUSE. 

The ditties of the ancient poets had no greater dispro- 
portion with their subject. — assertive clause. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 143 

And so in other examples, where the relative than 
refers, not to a Substantive, as in this case to dispropor- 
tion understood from the second clause, but to a noun, 
Adjective, or Adverb, so introducing a condition of quality 
or advantage. 

It does not affect the above reasoning whether, or not, 
we accept Mr. Tooke' s theory respecting the demonstrative 
pronoun, and conjunction that. As we have before re- 
ferred to it, our reader may feel some curiosity to know 
more respecting it. I shall give Mr. Tooke the oppor- 
tunity of speaking for himself. These are his words : — 

" That (in the Anglo Saxon, Dcet, i. e. Dead, Beat) means taken, 
assumed ; being merely the past participles of the Anglo Saxon 
verb Dean, Degan, Dion, Dicgan, Digian. 1 To the, To get, To take, 
To assume" 

" I'll mote he the 
That caused me 
To make myself a frere." 

Sir Thos. Mores WorJees, p. 4. 

I have no desire to enter on a discussion with Mr. 
Tooke on a point so abstruse as the derivation of the 
Saxon ]?cet, and the English that. He may, or may not, 
be right ; though at the same time, I do not see that he 
shows the slightest grounds on which to support this 
fiction of his imagination. Nor would I be inclined to 
deny, that the verbs Dion, and Dicgan, may not originally 
have sprung from the same root; yet this at least is 
certain, that they soon acquired in the Anglo Saxon very 
different meanings; Dion, or Deon, signifying To flourish, 
To thrive ; whence comes the verb To the ; and Dicgan, 
To take, To receive, To eat, whence comes our word Thane, 
a nobleman. 

But if indeed that really mean taken, or assumed, then 
than must mean the same, and we may, if it be thought 
worth while, substitute this signification in the above 
examples or any others. 

1 I do not know, that the form Digian has any existence, and the past 
participle of the other forms would, since they are verbs of strong forma- 
tion, end in en, and not ed, or od. 



1 1 1 ON THE MEANING AND 

T chanced to enter the cottage of a peasant's wife the 
other day. A respectable woman she was, and kept a cow. 
As may readily be imagined of a good housewife, it was 
not long before she got talking to me about her dairy, and 
in the course of her conversation she made a remark which 
struck me, not indeed for its shrewdness, but for the way 
in which it was worded. " Some kye," said she, u will give 
as much more butter than other some." Why, thought 
I, the woman talks Saxon. I turned on my heel, thanked 
her for her useful information, and jotted down her little 
speech in my note book, lest I should forget it. Let us 
operate on this almost Anglo Saxon sentence. 1 

" Than {i. e. according to Mr. Tooke, taken or assumed, 
the butter understood) other some (kye will give understood) 
— absolute clause. — Some kye will give as much more. — 

ASSERTIVE CLAUSE." 

It will thus be seen, that whatever credence we may 
be inclined to give to Mr. Tooke's theory, respecting the 
meaning and origin of that, and consequently of than, can 
in no way invalidate, while it may confirm, the truth of 
the above conclusions respecting the construction of than. 

One more example and we have done : — 

" Quarrels and divisions about religion were evils unknown to 
the heathen. The reason was because the religion of the heathen 
consisted rather (i. e. sooner or more) in rites and ceremonies, 
than in any constant belief; for you may imagine what kind of 
faith theirs was, when the chief doctors and fathers of their 
church were the -poets"— Bacons Essays. Of Unity in Religion. 

Transposing and substituting as before : — 

Than (i. e. taken or assumed, the degree to which the 

religion of the heathen consisted) in any constant belief, — 

absolute clause — the religion of the heathen consisted 

rather (i. e. to a greater degree) in rites and ceremonies. — 

ASSERTIVE CLAUSE. 

1 This woman, though she had certainly no English School Mistress to 
thank for it, spoke a dialect more nearly approaching Anglo Saxon than any 
thing we ever recollect hearing. So true is it that the real remnants of 
our Language are to be sought and found amongst our rustic population. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 145 

Such, then, is the method whereby we would seek to 
explain the meaning, and construction of than. We are 
aware, that it is not entirely beyond the reach of cavil ; 
that, specially against the latter examples, it may be 
urged we introduce than in the Accusative, or Ob- 
jective case, without any verb, or word to govern it in 
that case, since only in examples of the first class was 
there anything to account for such an usage. Is, then, 
this objection one of vital consequence, and, therefore, 
fatal to the theory we have imperfectly sketched out ? To 
us it would seem not. And, however repugnant our 
Reader may at first be to admit such irregular construc- 
tions, in proof of any theory whatsoever, we think, that a 
more mature consideration of the whole subject will not 
fail to remove his objections, and cause him to see in such 
examples, and apparently irregular constructions as the 
latter, merely the extension of an idiomatic usage. 

He will remember, that there are instances, like 
Example I, where the position and government of than in 
the objective case, seem sufficiently well accounted for. 
When, further, he considers, that such examples are of 
the simplest kind; those which were most likely to 
have occurred in the early intercourse of man with man, 
and so, in all probability, to have originated this method 
of comparing one thing with another; it will not strike 
him as in any way singular, that a common colloquial 
expression, though somewhat confined in its application, 
at first, should hereafter have had its bounds increased, 
albeit with some loss of its original grammatical accuracy. 

We are conscious, that a question, relating, not so 
much to any particular language, as to an operation 
of the mind, which must reproduce itself in language 
generally, ought scarcely to be discussed on grounds so 
narrow as those on which we have ventured to discuss it. 

We know, that by so doing, we lose sight of the 
arguments from analogy, which are frequently of much 



146 ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THAN. 

importance ; but we could not transfer our reasoning to a 
stage beyond the reach of the general reader without in 
a measure violating the tacit engagement we had entered 
upon. In the appendix, however, to this page, we 
felt ourselves less constrained, and there the reader will 
find, if he care to consult them, some of the arguments 
drawn from analogy, as well as a more general view of the 
entire subject. 



147 



CHAPTER IX. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPELLING IN THE BREECHES 
BIBLE : — TENDENCY OE ENGLISH AS ILLUSTRATED 
THEREBY. 

We have now detailed all those characteristics in the 
English of the 16th century, as chronicled in the 
Breeches Bible, which, either on account of the contrast 
they present to the usages of our own day, or for other 
reasons, seemed deserving of our attention. The mate- 
rials now in our possession, for striking a comparison 
between the English of that and the present day, and for 
estimating the nature of those changes which have taken 
place during the intervening period, are, we must admit, 
of a less general character, than could have been desired. 
But it was easy to see from the beginning, that this must 
have been the case, where it was sought from one book 
alone, albeit the fittest and most comprehensive for the 
purpose, to obtain general views, and deduce general 
conclusions as to the nature of the English Language at 
that time. 

Thus much, however, must be allowed, that the 
comparison, however it may be deficient as to detail, or 
generality, will be one based, so far as it goes, essentially 
on facts, and the rigid teaching of past experience. We have 
purposely abstained, hitherto, from commenting, or attempt- 
ing to theorize, on the facts which from time to time have 
been presented to us. We have preferred to let those facts 
speak for themselves, though, now that we have heard their 
evidence, it cannot be thought premature to seek out the 
conclusions to which they point, and the lessons they would 
teach us. To some extent this has, perhaps, already been 



148 CAUSES WHICH RETARDED 

done by the reader himself, nor do we at all wish to 
question his ability to do so as well as ourselves. Yet, 
there are some conclusions, which, we apprehend, it would 
be almost presumptuous to suppose he could have arrived 
at from the mere perusal of the brief and disconnected 
extracts, such as have alone been submitted to him. And 
particularly does this remark apply to the spelling — for I 
will not call it Orthography — of the period we are con- 
sidering; so far, that is, as we may be guided thereto by 
the character of the spelling found in our Text Book. 

There may be, and have been periods in a nation's 
history when, from anomalous causes, it becomes necessary 
to look with distrust, or at least excessive caution, on the 
form its written language assumes. 

At such a time, spelling may, or may not, be a safe 
guide in investigating the Etymology, and meaning of 
words. And this evil is still further aggravated wheu, as 
was the case with our own, the language has been 
subjected to foreign influence and modification. Such, to 
a great extent, seems to have been the period we are 
considering, and, to a still greater, the century immediately 
preceding it. Let us explain our meaning more fully. 

It is well known, that during the middle ages, both in 
England and on the Continent, literature, learning, and 
science found but a poor asylum in the ancient monas- 
teries, and religious houses. Had it not been for the 
Church, in those dark ages of ignorance, and superstition, 
answerable though, no doubt, she was to a great extent, 
for bringing about those very evils which she prevented 
from lapsing into extremity, it is fearful to think what 
might even now have been the condition of England. 

The only records which have been handed down to 
us of these ages, seem to have been those which alone 
were kept ; namely, the meagre monastic chronicles, and 
these written more frequently in Latin than in the mother 
tongue. Several causes contributed to this dearth of 
literary productions, amongst which must be specially 



THE PROGRESS OF ORTHOGRAPHY. 149 

mentioned the extreme scarcity of writing materials. 
Parchment was enormously dear, the Egyptian papyrus 
had ceased to be imported into Europe after the victories 
of the Arabians, and paper was not yet invented, or had 
not yet been introduced by commerce into the West. 1 
Some idea may be formed of this extreme scarcity from 
the fact, that in the archives of the Tower of London, in 
" the Eolls of fines," each contract for sale of lands never 
occupied more than a single line. But, though the scar- 
city of writing materials is sufficient to account in a great 
measure for the low state of literature, and the small 
progress in civilization which was made during the middle 
ages, we must carefully bear in mind, what we have already 
hinted at, that the land was wrapt in ignorance, and its 
people enslaved by the most degrading superstition; that 
priestly intolerance had reduced them to the deepest 
moral and intellectual degradation, and that very 
Institution, which, to serve its own purpose, just kept alive 
the few dying embers, the memorial of past rather than 
the proof of present learning, was also, in the main, the 
cause which compelled literature to seek so mean a refuge. 
It can excite but little surprise, then, that, while such 
was the condition of the people even up to the time of 
the Reformation, the art of writing, and, as a natural 
consequence, that of spelling, suffered severely from neg- 
lect. Since the time of the Norman Conquest no oppor- 
tunity had been afforded Englishmen to remodel their 
language, and to reduce its incongruous elements to 
something like harmony. 

1 Literature of the South of Europe : Vol. I, p. 3G. 

" All the rude chronicles in which passing events were at distant intervals 
registered, were written in Latin. All contracts of marriage, or of purchase, 
lending, or exchange, were in the same tongue, or rather in that barbarous 
jargon as far removed from the written as the spoken language." 

Ibid. 

"Prom the eighth to the tenth century, all annals of the Pranks, written 
in the convents, followed the same rule, and, whatever the number, or 
importance of events, the same annalist was bound not to exceed the 
line for each year." 

Ibid, p. 37, note. 



■— ^— ^— — 



150 TRANSITION PERIOD. 

It was not the work of a day, nor yet of a generation, 
to classify all those words, which had now obtained too 
firm a footing in the Language to be easily displaced, and to 
regulate the spelling, or orthography of those words accord- 
ing to the rules which obtained in the particular languages 
whence they sprang. Still more difficult would this task 
be amongst a people who did not enjoy the facility of 
writing, and reading, and whose minds, moreover, were 
crushed with the fetters of Romish priestcraft. But the 
morning star had already risen, and soon the foul bird 
which for so long a time, had brooded, like a night- 
mare over the face of the country, shook its dank 
plumage, and, winging away its heavy flight before the 
dawn of day, was soon seen as but a speck in the far 
distant horizon. And, though from that day dates the 
birth of intellectual and religious freedom for Englishmen, 
the progress for some time was slow. 

As, when the invalid is recovering from the delirium 
of a fever, his exhausted frame seems at first unable to 
put forth its energies, or his baffled mind to collect itself 
in steady thought; so the people of England, when at 
length it pleased God they should be recalled from that 
state of religious delirium into which they had fallen, felt 
at first incapable of exerting to the full those powers, 
whose very possession long tyranny had almost rendered 
them unconscious of. And thus it came to pass, that, 
when this long-neglected power of writing was restored, 
we have the singular anomaly presented to us of a people 
writing a language they but very imperfectly under- 
stood. The English Language at this time seems to 
have been in its embryo state. That extensive class 
of foreign words, introduced by the means of the Normans, 
yet retained their own strange accent and costume, and 
imparted to the language, spoken and written, a motley 
appearance equally removed from Saxon, and French. 

The following extract from a manuscript translation 
of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and part of that of St. Mark, 



TRANSITION PERIOD. 151 

made by Sir John Cheeke about the middle of the 16th 
century, and now lying in the library of Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge, will further illustrate the unsettled 
state of spelling at this period. 

" When Jesus was boorn in Beethleeni, a eiti in King Herods 
dais, lo there the wisards came from the 'est parties to Jeru- 
salem and asked whier the King of Jews was y* was new boorn. 
For we saw his sterr in the 'est, and we cam to worship 
him. When K. Herod herd this, he was trobled, and al Jerusale's 
with him : and he gatherd together al y e hei priests, and scribes 
of y e people and asked of them wheer Christ shold be born. 
And thei answerd in Bethleem of Juda, for so it is written by 
y e prophet ; and thou Bethleem of Juda, thou art no wais y e 
lest among the princes of Juda, for out of y e schal come a ruler 
y* shall feed Isfl mi people." 

In this short extract we have whier and wheer, came 
and cam; y e for both the and thee; schal and shal ; 
Beethleem and Bethleem. 

Indeed, from the time of the invention or introduction 
of printing, about the middle of the 15th century, down 
to the close of the 16th, may be considered especially 
the period when the principles of Orthography first began 
to receive attention. 

It is exactly during such transition periods as these, 
when the written expressions of a nation's language require 
to be received with caution. For, accustomed only to 
speak, and not to write their language, the people lose 
sight of the true origin and parentage of words; and, 
since Etymology is the only true guide to Orthography, 
fall into all kinds of fanciful, and phonetic methods of 
spelling. And thus it will not unfrequently happen, that 
the spelling of one age will serve but to confuse, if not 
actually to mislead, the enquirer of the next. 

The question, then, which more immediately concerns 
us, is whether this uncertainty prevails in the Genevan 
Bible, and, if so, whether to such an extent as to render 
fallacious any conclusions, etymological or otherwise, which 
we may fancy ourselves able to draw. Our answer must 
be a qualified one. For, on the one hand, it is impossible 



152 SPELLING — EARLY ENGLISH. 

to deny, that the spelling throughout bears most evident 
marks of the laxity, and entire want of uniformity which at 
this time prevailed. Indeed, it is in this respect that 
we conceive our Text Book to be peculiarly valuable; 
namely, because it affords us so true an index, not only of 
the peculiar texture of English at the time, but also of 
that phase through which it was passing. 

And again, on the other hand, it does not appear, that 
this informity ought to mislead the discriminating enquirer, 
for as soon as he has become conscious of it his greatest 
danger is over, and a knowledge of the parent tongues, the 
Anglo Saxon and French, ought to afford a sufficient 
safeguard, and enable him to discern at once, whether a 
particular form of spelling ought to be attributed to 
corrupt usage, or a closer approximation to one of the su- 
perior tongues. 

It will be found from the specimens given below, that, 
at this time, the French element in our language had 
undergone but slight modification, and still bore a close 
resemblance to what we find it to have been in Chaucer's 
time. It is this constituent element which we purpose 
now to consider, and also, more particularly, those changes 
which have assimilated it to the rest of the English 
Language. We take our stand, then, at this time, on an 
eminence, as it were, from which we can look down on the 
conflict being waged at our feet. We see before us a 
written tongue, in which Orthography, if not entirely 
unknown, resembled but a spar floating on the ocean, and 
tossed to and fro by every wave of caprice and whim ; and 
we watch till we see, at the commencement of the 
seventeenth century, and in our own authorized Version, 
most of these discordant members reduced to harmony and 
subjection, and our Language presenting for the first time 
some appearance of uniformity. Of the extreme uncer- 
tainty which still prevailed in spelling, the verb To weigh, 
affords an excellent example. It occurs in no less than 
four different forms ; namely, wet, ivey, waigh, and lastly, 



SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. 153 

that to which use has affixed its sanction, weigh. 1 Fre- 
quently, in the same verse, a word is spelt in two different 
ways. 

SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. 

Of words derived to us through the French, those now 
ending in y, formerly ended in ie. Thus, we find glorie 
for glory ; envie for envy ; vanitie for vanity ; prudencie 
an&prudency for prudence, &c, &c. Still the use of y for 
ie, in such words as these, was already known, and 
frequently adopted. 

In the class of words, of which joyne and poynte are 
examples, the use of y for i, where even etymology did 
not require it, should seem to indicate the French pronun- 
ciation, which such words still retained. 2 Having been 
spoken long before they were written, it was not 
unnatural, that when they came to be expressed in 
writing, they should exhibit some trace of their pronunci- 
ation. 

Another important class of words, w r hich we find in 
the Breeches Bible, is composed of those ending in our. 
Important, we think, as showing the tendency of the 
English Language to retrace words hack to their Latin 
roots, in preference to retaining the Gallicized, or French 
form. As examples of this class, we may notice the words 

Creditour (Fr. crediteur,) modern creditor, (Lat. creditor.) 
Oratour, (Fr. orateur,) " orator (Lat. orator.) 
Errour (Fr. erreur,) " error (Lat. error.) 

Governour (Fr. gouverneur,) " governor (Lat. guhernator.) 
&c. &c. &c. &c. 

1 Here we have an instance of the formative process, the birth throes, as 
it were, of our English verb To iveigh, from the Anglo Saxon weg-an. This 
verb, derived apparently from the Anglo Saxon substantive toeg, a way or 
passage, signifies first To bear, To cowry, To move ; secondly, To weigh, To 
weigh anchor. 

2 But the substitution of y for i was very common. Thus we find anoynt 
for anoint; oyntment for ointment ; yce for ice ; yles (French, He) for isles, 
gyant, ayre, &c. 



154 SETTLERS FROM FRANCE ENDEAVOR. 

In all these instances, and many others might be 
noticed, the French, or semi-French termination in -our 
has given way to the more simple Latin one in -or. This 
process is not yet universally applied. We still occa- 
sionally meet with such words as honour, labour, endea- 
vour, 1 &c, where the French termination is still apparent. 
And there is even one example where the Latin 
termination -or, having been adopted, the French -our has 
again been taken up. This is the word Saviour, which is 
found written Savior. But here the laws of Euphony 
have evidently interposed to control the undoubted 
tendency with regard to words of this class. 

The spelling of the following, and like words, shews, 
not only the source whence they were derived, but also, it 

1 This word, in this form occurs two, or three times in the Breeches 
Bible. I need not say it is in its older meaning, still to be found in the 
Collect for the second Sunday after Easter : " Give us grace that we may 
always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily 
endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life." 

Some, perhaps, not aware of the old meaning, and construction of the verb 
To endeavour, may read the latter clause, as though it were written, and 
meant nothing more than, " may ourselves daily endeavour, &c." So, in the 
following passage, the use is the same. 

" Brethren I count not myself that I have attained to it ; but one thing I 
doe, 1 forget that which is behinde, and endeuour myself vnto that which is 
before -"—Phil. in. 13. 

But the old meaning was very different from that which obtains in the 
present day ; and this difference may perhaps be best expressed by saying, 
that, while in the first instance, To Endeavour, was an active verb, derived 
immediately from the French verb JEndever, " to be in a rage," and governing 
an accusative case of the person, who put himself into a rage ; it has now lost 
its active signification, and bears a kind of neuter signification, (though it 
may still be said to govern a sort of verbal accusative.) By this change 
the verb has lost much of its original force, since " to endeavour oneself to do 
a thing" expresses the act of arousing, or stimulating oneself to a pitch 
of indomitable determination, for the accomplishment of the object 
proposed ; while " to endeavour to do a thing" only expresses an intention on 
our part, without at all denoting its intensity. So that the present force of 
the verb To endeavour, is merely equivalent to the verb To strive. 



SETTLERS FROM FRANCE RENOWME. 



155 



should seem, the way in which they were for a length of 
time pronounced. We have coupled the old form of 
spelling with the French verb, that the connexion may be 
more apparent. 



Old form. 


French. 


Modern form 


Reteined. 


Retenir. 


Retained 


Marveil. 


Merveille. 


Marvel. 


Restreined. 


Restreindre. 


Restrained 


Traveil. 


Travail. 


Travail. 


Reveil. 


Reveler. 


Reveal. 


Ordein. 


Ordonner. 


Ordain. 


Renue. 


Renouer. 


Renew. 


&c. 


&c. 


&c. 



Although in this class of words it can scarcely, in 
some cases at least, be said, that the tendency has been 
to retrace the form of the Latin root, for the dissimilarity 
between the Latin and French is sometimes too great 
to permit this, yet the tendency has been clearly to leave 
the French form, both in writing and pronunciation. 

The following examples are of a more specific nature, 
and must be considered by themselves. 



RENOWME. REPROCH. 

"And (I) will raise up for them a plant of renowme, and 
they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, 
neither beare the repvocli of the heathen any more." 

Ezekiel, xxxiiii. 29. 

Of the two words in italics in this passage, the latter, 
Reproch, is merely the French reproche, with the final 
e dropped ; probably to intimate to an English eye, that 
the o was to be pronounced short. 

The former Renovjme, requires more careful consider- 
ation, because to this word we are indebted for our 
substantive Renown. Renowme was the form which the 
French substantive Renom (from the verb Renommer, 
to give repute), assumed when it first began to take its 



156 DOUBLE FORMS. 

place in the English language. The remarkable change 
it has since undergone, — a change, which has produced 
Renown, — affords an example in which Euphony has tri- 
umphed over Etymology. Renown, though a pleasant 
word enough to the ear, is, nevertheless, a deformity 
whose construction will not bear investigation. 1 

PERFITE. 

" O Tyrus, thou hast sayd I am of perfite beauty." 

Ezek. xxvii. 3. 

Perfite is evidently the French parfait, from the 
Latin perfectus. Here, as in so many other instances, 
modern usage has shown its preference to Latin over 
French forms. The double forms of spelling French 
words are sufficiently indicative of the uncertainty which 
prevailed, as also of the change which was now taking 
place. And, according to the prevalence of the French, 
or Latin form over each other, we may form, I apprehend, 
some just estimate of the progress of that change in par- 
ticular words. 

Thus the French form domage, though occasionally 
found, was rapidly giving way to our present form, damage, 
which leans more to the Latin. The same applies to the 
French form marchants (Fr. marchand) , victuals, were as 
yet generally written after the French method vitailes ; 2 
though the Roman form victuals, was evidently coming 
into use. 

Virtue was at this time commonly written vertue. 

Licour (Fr. liqueur) had not receded before the Latin 
form liquor. 

1 As, however, noun is a contraction of the Latin nornen, so some may 
he content to see in the last syllahle of renown a similar contraction, 
rather than be compelled to adopt the above ungrateful conclusion. Not- 
withstanding, we fear this is not the real clue to its formation. 

2 The French word for victuals is vlvres, but the above form is still extant 
in the words avita'dler, To victual, and Avitailleur, a Victualler. 



SETTLERS FROM FRANCE. 157 

Maister (Fr. Maitre) still survived in places ; though 
the present form master, more nearly approaching the 
Latin magister, was generally used. 

Fashion, if possible, shewed a still closer .affinity with 
France, than even in our own day. This word is usually 
spelt facion, from the French faqon, faqonner, To form. 

" Who received them at their hands and facioned it with y e 
grauing toole, and made of it a molten ealfe." 

Ezekiel xxxn. 4. 

Chapiter is found for chapter ; route for roll ; proces 
for process; maner (Fr. manier, to handle) for manner ; 
and many others, which it would be tedious to notice 
in detail, but which all appear to support directly, or 
indirectly, the theory we have advanced of an innate 
preference in our language of Latin over French forms. 

The form ancre (Fr. ancre) for anchor, prompts us to 
ask the question, why, in retracing the Latin ancora, 
the letter h has been inserted, since its insertion cannot 
be either required by pronunciation, or defended by 
Etymology ? 1 

"And fearing lest they should haue fallen into some rough 
places, they cast foure ancres out of the sterne, and wished 
that the day were come." — Acts. xxvn. 29. 

The French word harnais had not as yet assumed its 
modern Anglicised form harness, but is found written 
harneis. 

" Let not him that girdeth his harneis boast himself as he 
that putteth it off." — 1 Kings, xx. 11. 

Fauchin, the Roman ensis falcatus, or curved swcrd, 
was still written after the French form, preserved in the 
words faucher, to mow, an&faucheur, a mower. 

" And she came to the post of the bed, which was at Holofernes 
head, and tooke down his fauchin from thence." 

Judeth, xni. 6. 

1 We are assuming here, that we have retraced the Latin Anchora 
through the French ancre; though there is no necessity for such an assump- 
tion since we might derive the word immediately from the Anglo Saxon 
Ancor, an Anchor. 



158 PUISSANT. 

But it is needless to multiply examples ; the above 
will amply suffice to shew how these strangers were 
being dealt with, and how at length the great mass of 
French words have become domesticated amongst us. 
Before, however, dismissing this branch of the subject 
it may be well to anticipate a question, which may be 
put, as to whether any large proportion of these French 
words have disappeared altogether from our language 
since the time we are considering? In answer to 
this question, it may be said, that very few of them 
seem to have so disappeared. Indeed, they had already 
been copiously thinned. Since Chaucer's time, numbers 
of them had become obsolete ; not even his illustrious 
sanction was able to enfranchise them. True, those 
that did remain still retained pretty much of their 
primitive costume, but, nevertheless, a silent agency 
was at work j first it thinned the bed of seedlings ; then, 
when this was done, it set to work at training, and trim- 
ming the remainder. The first of these operations may 
be said to have occupied the fifteenth century ; the 
second the sixteenth; while in the seventeenth century 
the class of words they had been manipulating became 
kneaded up with the rest of the language, an integral, 
and, to a certain extent, a homogeneous portion of it. 

We recollect to have found but one instance which 
properly comes under this category; still it is not im- 
possible a few others may exist, which have escaped 
either our eye or our memory. It is the word 

Puissant — " Thou art more bright and puissant than the 
mountaines of pray." — Ps. lxxvi. 4. 

SPELLING OF SAXON WORDS AND OTHERS. 

But we now pass on to consider some of those changes 
which were taking place in words of a more strictly 
English, that is, Anglo Saxon, character. Already had 
this portion of the language, the base as it were of the 
English tongue, received its present stereotyped form, 
as regards grammar, and construction. The changes 



SAXON WORDS — LAXITY OF SPELLING. 159 

which may be said to have converted Saxon into English, 
took place in Chaucer's time, about the year 1350, 
when the declensions of Substantives were reduced from 
six to one, and the case endings from four to one, or two. 
Yet, even Chaucer's phraseology differs from that of 
the Breeches Bible, not only in containing a much larger 
proportion of French words, but also considerably more 
of Saxon inflection. By the middle of the 16th 
century, these remnants of Saxon grammar had entirely 
disappeared, and given place to that construction, which 
must now be considered permanent in the English 
Language. It is, then, with the spelling alone of 
Saxon words that we are now concerned. For, as soon as 
a certain set of rules came to be generally recognized, — 
call those rules grammar if you will, — and the language 
had received pretty nearly its complement of words, it 
remained but that some uniform method of writing 
and pronouncing those words should also be adopted. 
We have already remarked, the Breeches Bible affords 
abundant evidence, that no such unanimity as yet existed ; 
though, at the same time, it is clear this subject was 
receiving attention, ^hich hereafter developed such a 
code of spelling, or orthography, as, in the main, obtains 
in our own day. 

It is hoped, that the reader has been enabled to 
form some adequate conception of the manner in which 
English was written and spelt, about this time^ from 
the examples, which, short and disconnected though they 
were, have already been adduced. In that case, there 
will be the less necessity to enter minutely into the 
investigation of a subject, which, apart from affording us a 
measure of the changes that have been instrumental 
in imparting to English words their present form, seems 
to possess no particular interest. Indeed, the task would 
have been both a laborious and a tedious one to have 
attempted a detailed examination of all the grotesque, 
double, and often triple forms of spelling, which prevailed 
at this time. 



1 



160 LAXITY OF SPELLING. 

Scarcely a single word is always spelt in the same 
manner ; and even terminating syllables, such for instance 
as -ness, -ly, -full, &c. follow no general rule. Indeed, 
such was the want of uniformity, that it is impossible 
to find out a single rule which seems to have been 
generally recognized. The most, then, we can do is to 
specify which of these various forms was the most 
common ; though it is frequently difficult to do even thus 
much. 

The termination -ness, is generally written -nesse, 
sometimes nes, but very rarely -ness. Thus we find 
darhnesse, and darknes ; businesse and busines, &c. but 
not darkness, nor business. 

Monosyllables, whether verbs or substantives, now 
ending with a consonant, generally doubled the final 
consonant, and added e. Sometimes, however, the present 
form of spelling such words is found, indicative of the 
change, which was beginning to take place. Thus, we 
find, dogge, warre, wanne, ranne, ramme, &c. ; for dog, war, 
&c. 

Words now ending in double I, generally, but not 
always, appear with a single I ; as wel for well ; wel, hel, 
shal, Ml, &c. for will, hell, shall, hill, &c. 

S is frequently used for c, and c for h. Thus tivise 
for twice ; mise for mice ; miming for mincing, &c. ; shout 
for scout ; carkeis for carcase ; joatriark for patriarch, &c. 

I and y, seem to have done duty alternately. Thus 
we find eie, and eye ; syrs and sirs. Yce and Ice, &c, &c. 

Such were some of the peculiarities which affected 
the language generally. The following examples are of 
a more specific nature : 

Been, that word which has now come to be looked upon 
as the past participle of the verb To Be, though incorrectly 
so, occurs in no less than three forms, differing from 
our own, namely, bin, bene, and beene. 



DOUBLE FORMS. 161 

Year appears in four forms; yere, yeere, yeer, and 
year. 

Prease is commonly found for press, and prest {presto 
of the conjuror) for present. 

Mids, middes, 1 and middest, apparently a kind of 
superlative form, at length verged into midst, are all 
found. 

" And he made the middest barre to shoote through the 
board es, from the one side to the other." 

Exod. xxxvi. 33. 

Hearbs, and herbs ; hundreth, and handred, are both 
found. 

" Then the King of Israel gathered the Prophets upon a 
four hundreth men, &c. — 1 Kings, xxn. 6. 

Utter frequently occurs for outer. 

Wiers for wires. 

None for noon. 

Overthwart (twisted over) for athwart. 

The personal pronouns me, he, she, thee, ye, were 
generally spelt with the double e, as we now spell thee, 
though occasionally with the single e. It is difficult now 
to conjecture, ^uch more to ascertain, what was the cause 
which lea to this method of spelling these words ; a 
method which has since been dropped, excepting in the 
case of thee, where its retention is desirable, if only for 
the purpose of distinction between it and the definite 
article the. 

There are two or three instances of spelling, which, 
contrary to the principle some time ago laid down, time 
seems to have altered for the worse. 

Vineger, the form constantly found in the Breeches 
Bible, should seem more correct, as derived from the 

1 Anglo Saxon midden, the genitive case singular of midd, middle, con- 
nected probably with the Anglo Saxon verb Midan, To hide. 

M 



162 TENDENCY TO RETRACE 

French Vin aigre, (sour wine) than our modern form 
vinegar. So also the form Tentation seems better than 
the modern one Temptation. 

Fornace, as it was commonly spelt, showed a closer 
affinity to the Latin fornax, than our present form furnace^ 
which seems rather to resemble the French form four- 
naise. 

But the change which has taken place in these words, 
and, it may be, in one or two others, will, since they are 
the exceptions, only serve to confirm the general rule 
which has been applied to the mass of French words, 
and which abundantly shows the innate preference in our 
language for the Latin over the French type. 

And it is well that such a preference not only mani- 
fested itself, but that there was no cause to prevent its 
being carried into effect. For had either the choice 
or the opportunity been' wanting, it seems tolerably 
certain, that English, considering the various discordant 
elements which it would have contained, could never have 
been written with that exactitude, and almost classic 
precision, of which it is now capable. Not that the losses 
it sustained can either be replaced, or ever cease to be 
deplored, but having been already incurred, this retrograde 
movement served to restore a character of precision and 
integrity which must otherwise have been sought for in 
vain. 

Suppose for instance, our language, instead of referring 
back to their Latin models the extensive class of French 
words, with which it was formerly inundated, had 
retained those words in the corrupt and mutilated forms 
they at first assumed, what would have been the character 
of English now ? Instead of preserving in the roots 
of many of its words a close resemblance and affinity 
to the Latin, the Latin element would have undergone a 
second dilution, and the probable consequence would have 
been, that this likeness and affinity would have been 



THE LATIN TYPE. 163 

generally weakened, and sometimes entirely lost. If we 
now wrote debts, as it is commonly written in the 
Breeches Bible, defies, and as it is even now written in 
French, how obscure would become the connexion be- 
tween this word, and the Latin form from which it 
springs, debit um. We are compelled to pronounce the 
word as before, yet we have done our best to show that we 
are conscious of its antecedents, as well as of those events 
which transferred it to English soil. On this account it is 
that English Orthography presents such difficulties to the 
foreigner, because, while the pronunciation of French 
words has undergone but slight change, the retrogression 
from a French to Latin type, in spelling, has considerably 
modified the aspect of the written language. 

Where there is no law there can be no transgression, 
consequently we should not be justified in stigmatizing 
the spelling of Saxon and French words at this time 
as vicious, or faulty. For, as not even the slightest 
pretence to any uniformity was made, so was it impossible 
that anything like uniformity should exist. The language, 
with regard to its spelling, was in a state of transition 
and re-formation. Yet, even at this time, there was 
a class of words whose violated orthography it is difficult 
to excuse ; those words we mean which bear on their 
surface unmistakeable tokens of their etymology. True, 
though instances which come under this class are not 
numerous, yet, as examples of the spelling of this period, 
they must not be omitted. We have observed 

Prophane for profane, (Lat. prof amis). 

Preheminence for pre-eminence. 

Abilliments for habiliments, (Fr. habillement) . 

Saciety for satiety, (Lat. satietas). 

Wain for wean, (Anglo Saxon toenail). 

Prease for press, (Lat. pressus) . 

Ballance for balance, (Fr. balance), &c. 

This is the only class of words whose spelling may 
be termed reprehensible. For here it is no longer possible 



1G4 FAULTY SPELLING. 

to plead those peculiar circumstances, which entirely pro- 
hibit hostile criticism in regard to the main body of the 
language. Such instances as the above could but have 
arisen from . ignorance, • or forgetfulness, of the roots 
whence they sprang, not from any uncertainty or vari- 
ableness in the words themselves. 

But, while on this topic, we may even ask ourselves, 
whether the usage of our own day is in all cases 
correct and well informed; for, if not, we should be 
cautious how we inculpate that of the past. Is it pro- 
bable, that in some remote period, when our present 
Version shall perhaps have become old and obsolete, like 
that which now lies before us, some curious investigator 
shall open its yellow worm-eaten pages, and be able to 
point out here and there instances, as he will call them, 
of faulty spelling ; instances which will shew, that the 
principles we have observed in the Breeches Bible have 
not as yet received their full recognition, nor our 
language its greatest polish and information ? It should 
seem that such an event is not altogether improbable ; 
for there yet linger amongst us some few words whose 
spelling can scarcely be defended. It is no part of our 
duty, now, to ransack the English of the day in search 
of such examples ; yet one, or two, occur to us, which 
we may be pardoned for noticing. Those verbs com- 
pounded from the Latin verb cedo, To go, appearing 
again in the French under the form ceder, afford us a 
case to the point. 

It is true, indeed, that each individual compound 
formed from this root (to use the term for convenience) is 
spelt, not in two, or three, different ways, but uniformly 
the same ; yet, what amounts to precisely the same 
thing, the identical common part, as it enters into 
different compounds, is spelt in different ways. Thus 
we spell Proceed, To go forward, with the double e; 
while the verb To recede, To go backward, differing only 
in the prefix re, we have thought proper to spell with 



FAULTY SPELLING. 165 

a single e. Similarly concede, intercede, precede, &c. 
after the French model cider, preceder, &c. It is not 
certainly a matter of much importance, which of these 
forms we adopt, so long as we consistently abide by the 
choice we make; but to use one form with one prefix 
and another with another set of prefixes, argues incon- 
sistency at the least, and is, moreover, apt to mislead 
as to the identity of the verbal compound in such words. 
Present custom seems rather in favour of the French 
form -cede, if we may judge from the majority of 
compounds ; if so, why should not proceed, succeed, and 
the rest, conform to usage, and be spelt procede, succede, 
&c? or else let all such verbs be spelt with the double e. 

Proffer, we are accustomed to write with the double 
f while prefer, and defer, compounds of the same Latin 
verb, and differing 1 only from the first, in having the 
prepositions pre and de instead of pro prefixed to the 
verb fero, are rightly written with the single/! This, 
too, seems inconsistent. What would the world think 
of a man who wrote agression instead of aggression f 
Would it not immediately set him down as ignorant 
and ill informed ? Yet such a man would be guilty of no 
error, which is not committed every day by those 
who write agreeable with a single instead of a double g. 
The former, it is true, has the sanction both of the French 
word agreable, and also of long usage ; yet, neither 
the one, nor the other, makes it essentially correct ; 
nor, as it seems to us, affords any satisfactory reason, why 
the more correct forms, aggree and aggreeable, should 
not be restored. Restored, we say, because the earliest 
form of the word, and that from which the French 
borrowed theirs, was aggradevole in the Italian. For 
changing this into agreable, the French language may 
have had reasons, the validity of which we are perhaps 



1 Differ and difference are rightly spelt with the double/, because the 
Latin verb, as compounded of dis and fero, is so written. 



166 SPELLING. 

scarcely competent to dispute ; but, at any rate, the 
same reasons cannot be urged in its defence any longer 
when it became an English word. 

It is hoped, that these few general and cursory 
remarks on English spelling, may serve to throw some 
light on the steps by which we have at length arrived 
at the orthography of our own day. 

The spectacle we have had presented, it should seem, 
leaves us but little room for boastful satisfaction. Nay, 
rather, when we consider how much of what is purely 
arbitrary, and fortuitous, entered, and still enters, into 
our standard of right and wrong, we ought to feel 
humbled, and learn, that bad spelling is rephrehensible, 
not so much because it implies ignorance of the roots 
and composition of our language, as because it betokens 
habits of inattention, and disrepect to the general consent 
of good society, whose decision, after all, must in the 
main be final. 

Here we bring to a close the remarks which have 
been suggested to us by the English of the Breeches 
Bible. In the two remaining chapters we propose to 
take a brief survey of the European Languages, and 
more especially to consider the bearing of the Anglo 
Saxon on the English Language. 



CHAPTER X. 



COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY.-INDO - GERMANIC TAMIL Y.- 
LATIN AND GREEK; THEIR ORIGIN AND AFFINITY 
WITH THE GERMAN FAMILY.-PEDIGREE OF ENGLISH. 
-THE ROMANCE WALLON ; - ITS INFLUENCE. — THE 
CLAIMS OF LATIN AND ANGLO SAXON COMPARED. 



The analogy which exists between Philology and 
Geology is of so striking and patent a character, and 
has, moreover, been so frequently insisted on, that we 
feel ashamed again to resort to this trite simile for an 
illustration. Yet, hackneyed as it has now become, it is 
one in which there is a parallelism of truth, extending 
even to the primaeval world, an(J embracing in its area 
kindred problems, whose solution is of the highest 
interest and import to man. Both are studies of 
comparatively recent birth, and in both the ground 
as yet explored is as nothing to that which remains. 
As in Geology we find a volume in which the natural 
history of the world has been chronicled, in charac- 
ters not to be misunderstood ; so in Philology we 
find a second volume, devoted to the history of the 
lord of that world, — God's highest creation, man. The 
former is not more definite and intelligible than the 
latter, nor more infallible in its teaching. Neither must 
be read alone, though each independently; and the 
results must be compared not so much with themselves, 
as made to throw their combined light on that third 
Volume, given to us by that God of nature Himself whose 
existence and identity has received such proof in the 
person of Jesus Christ, as must compel the assent of 
man so long as he is a reasonable creature. 



168 COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 

" External probability, arising from the study of 
comparative Philology," says the most celebrated linguist 
and philologer that England has ever produced, the late 
Dr. Donaldson, "leads us to the conclusion, that the 
varieties we distinguish, as well in the form as in the 
language of man, must have been produced by some 
violent dispersion of the human race over the whole 
surface of the Earth, and by the subsequent operation of 
the multifarious causes to which the different parts of 
the separated family would be exposed. The result of 
investigations of this nature is generally more satisfac- 
tory to our inquisitive spirit than any written testimony, 
however authenticated with regard to the creation and 
early state of man : for the facts to which such a tes- 
timony relate occurred long before the invention of 
writing; they are traditions handed down by word of 
mouth from father to son, beginning with the first man, 
and so going on to the man who wrote them down, 
and of which even the earliest narrator could have known 
but little without direct and immediate inspiration." 1 

Again, the same writer says "It is time that some 
attempt were made to show that the philosophy of language 
is so far from ministering to materialism and scepticism, 
that it actually stands forth as the chief confirmation 
of those systems which form the basis of all that human 
reason has ventured to contribute to the support of 
religion and morality." 2 

Such is the pleasing testimony of one, who on this 
point speaks with an authority which few will care to 
dispute. At the outset, then, the subject of comparative 
philology affords the student this pleasing reflection, that 
he is entering on a study, whose direct tendency hither- 
to has been to strengthen the claims which the inspired 
Writings have over his belief. And this, surely, is no 
trivial consideration in the present day, when a spirit of 

1 " The New Cratylus," p. 43. 

2 Ibid, p. 73. 



COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 169 

bold criticism has been set afoot, which has not hesitated 
to impugn the most sacred objects of our faith. Surely 
we can afford to lose not one iota of evidence, which 
tends to the support of Christian Philosophy against the 
rash, the ill-grounded, and, it is scarcely too much to 
say, the blasphemous speculations of the present day. 
Already, within the last half century, the study of 
comparative philology has done much to impart to our 
belief, in certain parts of the Scripture narrative, a 
rationality, which cannot but place that belief on more 
substantial, because more intellectual grounds, than it 
has hitherto held. 

We are now beginning to recognize the fact of the 
common parentage of men, and languages, not only be- 
cause Scripture assures us of it, but because in a 
multitude of instances we can trace the relationship for 
ourselves. 

Yet, it is, after all, very few who have ability, time, 
and opportunities, such as to render them capable of 
becoming original explorers in this wide and rich field 
of discovery. The great majority of us must be content 
to enjoy the fruits of others labours, and tread the 
ground already cleared by such pioneers as Donaldson, 
and men of similar attainments. But is it not so in 
other branches of study beside this ? How few, compared 
with the number of those who read mathematics, are 
able to enlarge the boundary of that science. Yet this 
is no argument against reading mathematics. And so in 
like manner should it be with regard to the study of 
comparative philology. 

We may not indeed be able to render our names 
famous by making fresh discoveries, or pushing our 
researches into regions as yet unexplored; yet the ac- 
quisition of sound and practical information on a subject, 
which ought at least to be interesting to each of us, 
the history of our race — and Comparative Philology 



170 ON THE STUDY OF 

is nothing less — should afford a sufficient inducement 
to bestow more attention to the subject than has 
hitherto been given. But, beside these general incentives, 
the very nature and composition of our own language 
is such as to demand some knowledge of this subject, 
before we can rightly understand the relative bearing 
of English to the other languages of Europe. A few 
men here and there devote themselves to it, but as yet 
it has received no public recognition ; our public schools, 
and even our Universities ignore it, nor does there appear 
at present any symptoms of their awaking to a sense of its 
importance. Our surprise may, indeed, be somewhat 
lessened, when we recollect, that Comparative Philology, 
like Geology, was, as a separate study, unknown to the 
Greeks and Romans. As colonists, in the wider sense 
of the term, their time was in the early ages of their 
settlement employed in establishing themselves in their 
new homes, in organizing their constitutions, and in 
subduing their enemies. And when, at length, their 
institutions had acquired a permanent consistency, their 
natural genius preferred, and justly so, to soar on the free 
and unfettered wings of fancy, rather than to tie itself 
down to the tedious investigation of the past, or, to 
them, the monotonous study of themselves. Indeed, to 
them there would be no past ; all would be present and 
future. " At the period," says Sismondi, 1 "when nations 
yet in their infancy are animated by a creative genius, 
which endows them with a poetry and literature of their 
own, while it renders them, at the same time, capable 
of splendid enterprises, susceptible of lofty passions, and 
disposed to great sacrifices, the literature of other nations 
is unknown to them. Each draws from its own bosom 
that which best harmonizes with its nature." 

And thus it was with the nations of ancient Greece 
and Rome. Their languages so speedily diverged from 
those, which, even to this day, betray unmistakable signs 

1 "Literature of the South of Europe/' vol. 1, p. 25. 



COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 171 

of affinity ; so soon acquired a character and individuality 
each of its own, that this very affinity seems to have 
been ignored ; nor does a consciousness of the position 
they held, relative to the remaining members of the same 
great family, ever appear to have returned. Besides, a suc- 
cession of prosperous circumstances, or circumstances 
calculated to develop their intellectual and warlike 
capacities, by raising them above the level of the nations 
by whom they were surrounded, at the same time severed 
those bonds of sympathy which should have connected 
them with the rest of mankind. It may be doubted, 
whether they would not have repelled with disdain the 
notion, that a common brotherhood, and, in some sort, 
a common language existed between themselves and 
the nations who bowed in subjection at their feet, or 
whose conquered princes served often but to increase 
the magnificence of a triumphal procession. 

And thus, to a great measure, has it been with 
ourselves hitherto. We have been too deeply engrossed 
with topics of a religious, political, or civil character, 
to think much upon ourselves and our language. Yet the 
time seems now to have arrived when our attention 
may not unfitly be turned to these and kindred studies, 
which demand for their consideration, not so much 
the romantic and impulsive energy of a nation's youth, as 
the sober thoughtfulness of its manhood. Already, on the 
continent, have these studies received considerable atten- 
tion, and Germany more particularly has become famous 
by the number and ability of her philologers. Of the 
few in England who have devoted themselves to the 
subject of comparative philology, there is none to whom it 
is more indebted than the late Dr. Donaldson, and for the 
convenience of those who are unable to consult his works 
for themselves, we have ventured to draw, in rough 
outline, a sketch of his theory — perhaps better, the results 
which his labours enabled him to arrive at respecting the 
great Iudo-European family of languages. We simply 
desire to widen the bed over which the streams of his 



172 THREE GREAT CLASSES OF LANGUAGES. 

information flow, or by diverting them into smaller, albeit 
shallower, channels, bring that information within the 
reach of those who otherwise would not obtain it. 

Dr. Donaldson, then, divides all known languages into 
three great classes. 

1st. Languages with monosyllabic roots, incapable 
of composition, and therefore without Grammar, 
or Organization. To this class belongs the Chinese. 

2nd. Languages with monosyllabic roots capable of 
composition. To this class belong the Sanscrit 
family, and all other languages not included under 
classes 1 and 3, preserved in such a state, that 
the forms of the words may be resolved into their 
simplest elements. 

3rd. Languages consisting of dissyllabic verbal roots, 

and whose grammatical forms are produced, not 

merely by composition, as in class 2, but also by 

a simple modification of the roots themselves. 

This class contains the Semitic Languages only : 

that is 

TT , fChaldee. 

Hebrew^ c • 

^syriac. 

Arabic. 

Aramaic, &c. 

Of these three classes, the second, as embracing all 
the languages now spoken in Europe, is by far the most 
important to us, and to this therefore we shall confine 
our attention. It has been variously called the Sanscrit, 
Indo-Germanic, or Indo-European. Of these the second, 
or Indo-Germanic, is the most significant, inasmuch as 
it implies the connexion existing between the Indian 
and Teutonic Languages. 

The nursery, if not the birthplace of this great family, 
seems to have been a country in Asia, called Iran, 
bounded on the North by the Caspian Sea, on the South 



THE INDO-GERMANIC FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 173 

by the Indian Ocean, on the East by the Indus, and 
on the West by the Euphrates. The people inhabiting 
this district appear to have spoken two languages, which 
bore the same relation to one another as the High and 
Low German of the present day ; namely, Low Iranian, 
spoken by those who dwelt in the low countries to the 
North and East ; and High Iranian, by those on the 
mountainous districts of the South. When the population 
of this country became too numerous to be confined 
any longer within its comparatively narrow limits, the 
Eastern and Northern tribes sent off migrations to the 
South-East and North-west, the latter driving before 
them, as is usually the case, the tribes, and amongst 
them the Low Iranians, by whom they were hemmed in. 
Thus, there went forth a band of High Iranians to 
the South-east, who succeeded in mastering the 
Northern part of Hindostan, and perhaps some of the 
Polynesian Islands ; and also a band of emigrants to 
the North-west who stayed not till they reached the shores 
of the Atlantic, carrying along with them their Low 
Iranian dialect, and spreading it over a great portion of 
Asia, the whole of Europe, even to the Islands of the 
West. The proof of this colonization of Europe and 
Northern India, by the inhabitants of Northern and 
Eastern Iran, rests upon the agreement of the languages 
spoken by the oldest inhabitants of India and Europe, 
and on the obvious derivation of the names of the earliest 
tribes in both, from the country which afterwards became 
Media. 1 

From these Low Iranian migrations, probably following 

1 New Cratylus, p. 83. Again, p. 84. "The argument from the Lan- 
guage is decisive of the whole question. The resemblances between the old 
Low German dialects, (Gothic, Saxon, &c.) and the Sanscrit, even after a 
separation for thousands of years are so striking that an eminent Philologer 
(Bopp) has said " when I read the Gothic of Ulphilas, I could believe I had 
Sanscrit before me." On the whole, then, we consider it as nearly certain, 
that the Hindus in India, and the Low Germans in Europe, are emigrants 
from the country about the Southern extremity of the Caspian Sea." 



174 THE IN DO-GERMANIC 

each other at widely distant intervals of time, arise, not 
only those languages called Low German, because spoken 
in the low countries of Northern Europe, but also, Dr. 
Donaldson is of opinion, arguing from what he knew 
of the Etymology and Grammatical structure of those 
languages, the Low Celtic or Erse, the Lithuanian, and 
the Sclavonian languages. 

It would appear, then, that from the Low Iranian 
migrations have sprung the following languages : 

1. The Low or Old Celtic, comprising 

The Erse of Ireland. 

The Gaelic of Scotland. 

The Manx of the Isle of Man. 

2. Low German, including three divisions ; 

I. The Scandinavian family ; viz. 

Icelandic. 

Swedish. 

Danish. 

II. The Low German dialects proper; viz. 

Saxon, and Anglo Saxon. 

Frisian. 

Flemish. 

Dutch. 

III. The Old or Maeso-Gothic ; or, as Bopp 

calls it, the German Sanscrit. 

3. The Sclavonic, the most widely extended of the 
In do-Germanic family, spoken more or less over that tract 
of country bounded by the Pacific on the East, the Baltic 
on the West, the Arctic sea on the North, and the 
Adriatic on the South ; and in Europe, by the Russians 
and Rusniaks, the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, Dal- 
matians, Croats, the AVends and Sorbs in Lusatia and 



FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 175 

Saxony, the Slowaks in Hungary, the Bohemians, 
Moravians, Poles and Silesians. 1 

4. The Lithuanian Languages ; viz. 

Lithuanian Proper. 

Lettish. 

Old Prussian. 

Such, according to Dr. Donaldson, are the offspring 
of the sucessive Low Iranian migrations into Europe. The 
order in which these migrations took place may be 
inferred from the present position in Europe of the people 
who speak their respective languages. The Celts, no 
doubt connected to some extent with the Finns, 2 were 
the first emigrants into Europe, and it is thought, that by 
them the British Isles were peopled so early as b.c. 1200. 
The Teutonic and Scandinavian family was the next to 
follow, pressing on the Celtic as closely as possible, 
and detruding them to the utmost limits of the west. 
They are supposed to have entered Europe by the Kimme- 
rian Bosphorus, about b.c 680. 

The Sclavonians were the last in order, and conse- 
quently occupy the eastern parts of Europe. 

But, besides the Low Iranian migrations, Dr. Donald- 
son is of opinion, that there was another Iranian migration 
of mixed character, to which he would attribute what 
he calls the High German, and High or New Celtic 
dialects. This migration he supposes to have followed, 
and been caused by, the subjugation of the Medes, a 
Low Iranian, by the Persians, a High Iranian people. 

1 " The different tribes who spoke this language were known to the 
Ancients under the names Rhoxolani, Krobyzi, Sarinatse, Sauroinatse, Pan- 
nonians, and Venedi, or Wenidae."— Ibid. 

2 The Danes, or Northmen, members of the great Scandinavian family, 
and second migratory wave which rolled over Europe from the East, 
encountered them in the North of Europe, about the same time that the 
Saxons and Angles encountered the Celts in Britain, 



m 



176 THE COMPOSITION OF 

The Median and Persian languages, that is to say the 
Low and High Iranian dialects, thus becoming fused, 
there resulted the mixed language, which constituted the 
speech of those Persians with whom the Greeks had so 
much to do, and the connexion of which with modern 
High German was long ago perceived. 1 If this be so, 
then to this mixed Iranian migration are due the High 
German, and High Celtic languages. The former is 
divided into three classes, the Old, Middle, and New 
High German, the latter of which is now the written 
language of all Germany, and owes its position to the 
influence of Luther, who was from Upper Germany. The 
New or High Celtic comprises 

Welsh. 
Cornish. 
Breton Idioms. 

Such is an extremely rough outline of the parentage of 
those languages boasting a pure descent, and of their 
family connexions with each other, which are now spoken 
in Europe. It may seem strange to some, that even 
so rough an outline as this should refuse to pay the 
slightest regard to the classic languages of Greece and 
Rome. Yet such is undoubtedly the case, and we are, 
therefore, left to conclude, that these languages must 
either have presented no affinity with the Indo-European 
family, or, otherwise, they have forfeited their claim to be 
considered as the pure descendants of any one branch. 
The influence of these two languages has been so great, 
not only, as we have already had occasion to see, on 
our own English, but also on the languages of Southern 
Europe, where the Latin, in conjunction with the primaeval 
dialect, has given birth to that important family called 



1 New Crat. p. 87. " It was to one of the tribes of the Persians, the 
TepfxdvLoi, mentioned by Herodotus, I. 25, that the Germans owe their 
name." 

2 Ibid, p. 80. 



LATIN AND GREEK. 177 

the Romance tongues, 1 that a short time occupied in 
considering them cannot we think be mispent. Proudly 
as they stand aloof from the great representatives of the 
Indo-European family, they are yet no heaven-born 
offspring, and though, as it were in disdain, they refuse 
to disclose, or disclose only by obscure fable and shadowy 
legend, the manner of their birth, and their family 
connexions, yet Philology refuses to be hoodwinked, 
and lays bare with unsparing hand the secrets of their 
formation. 

There is an opinion, which has long been, and, for 
aught we know, is still widely prevalent; an opinion 
which dates at least from the time, and has no less 
authority than that of Mr. Home Tooke, that "the 
bulk and foundation of the Latin language is Greek." 3 
Yet in spite of such high authority, it appears we must 
now learn to look upon this opinion as erroneous. Other 
and better Scholars and Philologers than Mr. Tooke 
take now a different view of the subject. Dr. Donaldson 
considers (for his intellect still lives) that the Latin is of 
at least equal antiquity with the Greek, and not derived 
from it; that the similarity existing between them, 
which has caused us to think so, is fully accounted for by 
the same people, the Pelasgians, probably of the Sclavonic 
stock, settling simultaneously in Italy and Greece; while 
the difference, which afterwards sprung up, and caused 

A.D. 

1 Namely : 1. The Provenfal, established at the Court of 

Bozon, King of Aries, 877—887 

2. The Langue d'Oil, or d'Oui, Romance Wallon, or 
Norman French, from the mixture of which with the 
Anglo-Saxon has resulted our own English, at the 
Court of "William Lonque-Epee, the son of Hollo duke 

of Normandy, between the years 917 — 943 

3. The Castilian, in the reign of Ferdinand the Great 1037—1065 

4. The Portuguese, under Henry the founder of the 
Monarchy 1095—1112 

5. The Italian, under Roger I. King of Sicily 1129-1161 

2 " Diversions of Purley," p. 402. 1857. 

N 



178 THE COMPOSITION OF LATIN AND GREEK. 

Latin and Greek to be regarded as separate languages, or 
connected only by descent, was due to the difference of 
those lingual elements, which were hereafter superimposed 
and amalgamated with the original and common base. 

Our own opinion, we are quoting the words of the 
same writer, drawn purely from philological and geogra- 
phical considerations, is, that the first population of both 
Italy and Greece, was Erse, or Low Celtic. After them 
came the Sclavonian (Pelasgian) element in each country, 
and then a Lithuanian element was added in Italy, and a 
Persian, High German, High Celtic, or to speak generally, 
High Iranian in Greece. 1 

He founds thus much of his argument on the facts, 
that the Sclavonian, the most widely extended branch of 
the Low Iranian family, may be traced to the immediate 
neighbourhood of Greece and Italy, as there are singular 
coincidences between Latin and the oldest, or iEolian 
Greek, on the one hand, and even the modern Sclavonian 
languages on the other ; and, as the Greek traditions point 
to the Hyperborean regions, we may safely call the Pelas- 
gians by a name which, though now restricted, properly 
describes all those Low Iranian tribes, that came into im- 
mediate contact with the people of whom we are speaking. 3 

From what has been said, then, it should appear 
probable, that Latin and Greek possess two elements in 
common, namely, the Celtic and the Sclavonian, or Pelas- 
gian ; and, therefore, that the difference which has since 
sprung up between them was caused by the supervention 
of a Persian or High German dialect in Greece, and a 
Low German, probably Lithuanian, in Italy. But this 



1 New Crat. p. 90. 

2 " That the Pelasgians were of Sclavonic origin is pretty clear (not to 
speak of historic probability) from the agreement of even modern Sclavonic 
with Latin, and the oldest element of Greek. The resemblance of Eussian 
to the Latin is so striking, that a modern traveller has not hesitated to assert 
that the founders of Rome spoke the Russian language ."—New Crat. p. 91. 



THEIR AFFINITY WITH THE GERMAN FAMILY. 179 

theory, though probably true in its general outline, is still 
only a very rough approximation towards the ascertain- 
ing of the real constitution of these languages. Much, 
as it seems to us, is still left for the investigation of 
modern scholars ; much that nothing but great versatility 
in modern languages, as they are sometimes called, can 
hope to elucidate. That the Latin language bears evident 
traces of Low German influence, it is impossible for a 
moment to deny ; for the merest tyro in Latin and Anglo 
Saxon cannot fail to perceive them. The question rather is, 
what was the exact nature, — the particular dialect — of this 
Low German element, and in what relative order to the 
other components of the Latin tongue was its agency felt ? 
The similarity which exists between many Anglo Saxon 
and Latin words, and, in many cases, the identity of the 
radicle, seems to point, if not to the Saxon itself, at least 
to a dialect closely akin to the Saxon, and not improbably 
the Gothic. We, however, must content ourselves at 
present with calling the attention of others to the striking 
similarity which exists between a large body of Anglo 
Saxon and Latin words. Not, indeed, that we wish to 
pride ourselves on this, as a new discovery, but simply, 
because it seems, that we have here a vein which has by 
no means been worked out. Nor will this investigation be 
altogether an easy one, or free from biassing influences. 
For instance, the ecclesiastical subjection of this country 
to Rome, which took place at a comparatively short period 
after the settlement of the various German tribes in this 
island, had, no doubt, the effect of introducing many 
Latin words, particularly ecclesiastical words into the 
Saxon of this country. Five, says the venerable Bede, 
was the number of languages spoken in this island in his 
day, the Angle, the British, the Scottish, (Lowland Scotch) 
the Pictish, and the Latin, which by the study of the Scrip- 
tures has become common to all the rest. 1 And, as a natural 



1 Hsec in prsesenti, juxta numerum librorum quibus lex divina script a 
est, quinque gentium Unguis unam eandemque summae veritatis et vera? 






180 ECCLESIASTICAL WORDS 

consequence, nearly all the ecclesiastical words in Anglo 
Saxon are of Latin or Greek formation. As for instance, the 
Greek eVtV/co7ro?, An Overseer, which became in the Latin 
Episcopus, and when transferred to French soil assumed the 
form Evesque, and finally, Eveque, took up its position in 
this country as a Saxon word, under the form Biscop. So 
the Latin Clericus produced the Saxon Cleroc, or Clerc, a 
clerk, that is a priest. 1 

Again, our word Kirk, or Church, is the Anglo Saxon 
Cyricea, most probably 2 formed from the Greek to 
Kvpiaicov, (Eccl.) the Lord's house. The Saxon word 
Sacred, A priest, is probably connected with (per meta- 
thesin) the Latin word Sacerdos. And the same remark 
applies to a number of other words, which have found a 
place in the Anglo Saxon, such as Discipul, A disciple ; 
Diacon, A deacon; Canon, A canon; Biblioftece, A 
library ; Capitul, A chapter ; Cantic, A song, &c. 

These and similar examples shew, that, in striking a 
comparison between Anglo Saxon and Latin words, care is 
requisite to avoid all such as are likely to have owed their 
existence in the Anglo Saxon to the influence of the eccle- 
siastical Latin, which, in the words of the venerable Bede, 
became common to the other tongues spoken in Great 
Britain, ' ' meditatione scripturarum," by the study of the 
Scriptures. 

Such examples of similitude, or resemblance, in the 
two languages prove nothing as to their prior relationship, 
or their relative antiquity. Nor, indeed, is there the least 
necessity to choose such words, for others exist in great 

sublimitatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur, Anglorum videlicet Brit- 
tonum, Scottorum, Pictorum, et Latinorum, quae meditatione seripturarum, 
caeteris omnibus est facta communis.— Hist. Eccl. lib. I. c. 1. 

1 The use of clerk, in its modern acceptation of a writer, arose from 
the fact, that for a length of time during the middle ages the clergy, 
priests, or clerici, were nearly the only persons who possessed the power 
of writing. 

7 We say probably, because some have been pleased to look to the Saxon 
verb Ceosan, To choose, for the root of Church. 



IN ANGLO SAXON. 181 

abundance against which no such objection as the above 
can be urged. A few such instances, which seem to be 
trustworthy, and point clearly to the close affinity which 
existed at some former time between the Latin, and, we do 
not say the Anglo Saxon precisely, but, at any rate, some 
Low German dialect, will be found collated in the Appen- 
dix to this page. One cannot see two such words as Erian 
and Arare, both answering to the same English verb To 
plough, without being satisfied, that both must have had a 
common origin. Again, the very names of man and woman 
are radically the same in both Latin and Anglo Saxon. 
In the latter they appear as Ver and Foemne, while in the 
former, the Latin, they take the form almost unchanged 
of Vir and Fcemina. 1 

But it is no part of our intention to pursue this inves- 
tigation here, and our object in alluding to it at all is 
merely to point out the true relationship existing between 
Latin and Anglo Saxon, and, as a necessary consequence, 
between Latin and our own English. There seems the 
greater necessity that this should be done, because there is 
prevalent a vicious method of referring English words to 
what are falsely called Latin roots, when in reality the 
root both of the English and Latin is to be found in some 
Low German dialect. After what has been said of the 
nature and composition of the Latin language, it is almost 
needless to add, that, in the pursuit of etymological en- 
quiry, even with respect to our own language, the Latin 
occupies a mediate and subordinate position. It is itself 
a compound tongue whose elements will be found, so far 
as it is now possible to find them, in extraneous sources. 
There is considerable danger of confounding together, 
what we shall call the ultimate and proximate elements of 

1 The word in the old Scandinavian is feima : in Saxon fehmea,fadmia ; 
in Frisian, fdmne, fomne, fovne. Ettmuller makes the following almost 
superfluous remark on the origin of the word:— "Vox fcemne ex Latina 
voce faemina, an originem sumpserit, dubito ; neque fam et foemne ad faban 
referri posse videntur, etsi Sax. Fadmia et Anglo-Sax. Fafcu, amita, cum 
verbo fa>an (alere, amplecti) congruant." 



182 



ENGLISH PEDIGREE. 



a language. 1 No one will deny, that French is an element 
in the English language; or again, that Latin is an ele- 
ment in the French language; yet in neither of these 
cases have we an ultimate element. The French is formed 
hy the amalgamation of the old Gallic Latin with the Ger- 
man, or Teutonic dialect spoken by the Franks, who 
invaded, and settled in northern France about the middle 
of the fifth century of this era ; while the Latin, as we 
have seen, is also compounded of a Low German and some 
other element, whose exact nature is less easily defined. 
And thus it appears, that neither the French, nor the 
Latin, have any claim to be considered as themselves ulti- 
mate elements of our English. We have attempted, by 
the aid of the following rough chart, to illustrate the suc- 
cessive steps in that process, which have led to the forma- 
tion of the English tongue; as also, to show in what 
relative order the various dialects of which it is composed 
entered into its composition. 



Celtic and Lithuanian, 
Sclavonian. or some 
v y ' Low Ger- 
man 
Dialect. 



Latin 



Franco-Theotisque, or Frantic, 
the parent of the Platt-Deutsch 
spoken by the Franks, who set- 
tled in the provinces of France 
north of the river Loire. 



Anglo Saxon 



The Romance Wallon, Langue d'Oil, 
Langue d'Oui, or Norman French. 



ENGLISH. 



1 If we may be pardoned for borrowing a simile from the laboratory in 
illustration of the meaning of ultimate and proximate, we would say, that, 
while albumen, casein, and fibrin are the proximate elements of food, because 
they approximate nearest to those substances which our digestive organs can 
receive and operate upon ; the ultimate elements are those, of which albumen, 
casein, fibrin, are themselves compounded, namely, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, 
and nitrogen. 



THE PRANKS IN GAUL. 183 

Such appears to be the pedigree of the English 
language. Of its nearest relation, and that to which 
it still bears the strongest family likeness, we will not 
speak particularly here, but a word, or two, respecting 
those diverse elements, which have entered into its 
composition through the French side, may not perhaps 
be superfluous. With regard to the assumed constitution 
of the Latin it will at once be seen, that we have followed 
Dr. Donaldson. Of the exact nature of the old Fran- 
cic, the combination of which with the Latin gave 
rise to the Romance Wallon, but little is known. It 
presents a closer affinity to High German, than either 
the Old Saxon, the Anglo Saxon, the Dutch, or the 
Frisian. Its original locality, and that from which 
it spread, by means of the conquests of the Carlovingian 
Franks through a large extent of Germany and France, 
were the parts on the Lower and Middle Rhine about 
Cologne. The written language of Germany, and the 
language of literature, at this day, is High German. 
Yet it is remarkable, that the districts, where the Highest 
German is spoken, are Hanover and Brunswick, Platt- 
Deutsch districts. 1 For some length of time after the 
subjugation of Northern France by the Franks, both 
the old Latin, spoken by the Gauls, who affected the 
name of Romans, and the Francisque existed as separate 
tongues. The settlement of the Franks in upper Gaul 
took place about the middle of the fifth century; yet 
the historian tells us, that Charlemagne, who was declared 
Emperor of the West in the year a.d. 800, or three 
centuries and a half later, still spoke the "patrium ser- 
monem," or language of his ancestors. The fact is, that 
no less than three languages were in use during this 
period; for while the Francisque, or German, continued 
to be employed in the court, in conversation and in 
martial and historic poems, the Latin was still the WTitten 
language, and the rustic population spoke a kind of 
^ patois which partook, more, or less, of the nature of both 
the German and the Latin. As time advanced, however, 

1 Dr. Latham's " English Language." Vol. I. pp. 135—137- 



184 THE ROMANCE WALLON. WAELCHS. 

this compound of the Latin and German gained ground 
amongst the people, until at last its existence became 
formally rocognized by the Council of Tours a.d. 813, 
which directed, that the Bishops should translate their 
homilies into the two languages of the people, the 
Romance and the Theotisque, or German, 1 instead of 
delivering them in Latin as had heretofore been the case. 2 
It was not, however, until a century later that this 
new tongue received its full developement and recognition. 
Rollo, the Dane, acquired the Dukedom of Normandy 
in the year a.d. 912, and, strange though it may seem, 
William Longue-Epee, his immediate descendant, by 
adopting and introducing it at his court, gave to it a 
status and stability which, otherwise, it might never 
have possessed in his province. 

While the inhabitants of southern France prided them- 
selves on their nearer connexion with Rome, and called 
themselves Romans Provenqaux, that is, Romans of the 
Province, and their language the Provincial Roman, or 
Romance Provencal; the Celtic population of the north 
were known to the Franks by the name of Waelchs, 3 

1 Sismondr's " Literature of the South of Europe," Vol. I. p. 188. 

9 This historic fact is worthy of notice, because it shows that the 
Romish Church in the earlier period of its existence, never contemplated the 
monstrous imposition of administering her religious ordinances in a tongue 
which the common people could not understand. 

3 So in England, the Celtic population were called Wealhas, (a word 
signifying foreigners), modern Welsh, though the name was applied, not to 
the Welsh only, but also to the British inhabitants of Wessex, and those 
who took refuge in Cornwall. Had we not known from other sources, 
that the conquered Britons sought and found an asylum in this corner of 
the country, the name alone, which it bore amongst the Saxons, would 
have afforded a sufficient indication of the fact. It was called by them 
Comwealas, a name, which might be freely translated " the Welsh of Com" 
As to the meaning of this word Corn, in the absence of any other hypothesis 
known to us, we feel inclined by a somewhat ambiguous remark of Thierry's 
in his " Norman Conquest," Vol. I. p. 16, and Note (2) thereto, to consider it 
a contraction of the Latin word Cornu, a Horn. Thierry says, that Cornu 
Gallia is the same name with that of the westernmost county of England, 
Cornwall. It seems, indeed, probable enough, that the first syllable Corn is 



ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND — TROUBLE. 185 

or Walloons, and their language by that of the Romance 
Walhn. And such was the language introduced into 
this country by William the Conqueror, and such its 
composition. It is thus, that the Latin occupies the 
important position it does in the English language. To 
the other, the Francisque element, little attention has 
hitherto been directed in this country. In its nature 
it bears a somewhat close resemblance to the other Low 
German element and main constituent of our tongue, 
the Anglo Saxon. We have had occasion in a former 
part of this book to notice English words, which may 
be traced to Germany, either through Anglo Saxon, 
or the Francisque. In some cases a word will be found 
to have existed in both, and yet to have transmitted no 
offspring, or representative, to our English. The Anglo 
Saxon Orgel, and the modern French Orgueil, both 
signifying Pride, is an example to the point. It might 
perhaps too be considered a debatable question, whether 
the word Trouble has any just claim to be considered a 
German word on the Francic side. Mr. Home Tooke, 
indeed, would make it one on the Anglo Saxon ; carelessly 
assuming, that because Trouble is an English word, and 
the Anglo Saxon verb Tribul-an, sounds very like it, 
the former must necessarily be the offspring of the latter ; 
never stopping for a moment to ask, whether such 
a substantive as Trouble or its like, ever existed in the 
Anglo Saxon. Dean Trench, if we recollect rightly, 
considers it as nothing more than the old Latin word 
Tribulum, a kind of threshing machine, or roller with 
which the ancients beat out their corn, used in a meta- 
phorical sense ; and, therefore, to this extent a new word. 
This hypothesis seems far the most likely; for although 
in the old Francic there may have been, not only a verb 
corresponding to the Anglo Saxon Tribulan (doubtless 
connected with the Latin Tribulo Tero, &c.) but also, that 

a contraction of the Latin Cormi, but, if Thierry's remark implies further, 
that the second syllable, -mall, is a contraction, or rather a corruption, of 
Gallia, then we must decline to acquiesce, since the Saxon termination 
Wealas seems to us decisive on this point. 



186 FRENCH AND ENGLISH. 

which in the Anglo Saxon is wanting, a substantive 
answering to Trouble; yet, in the absence of any proof 
of this, it is far more probable, and credible, that the 
French and consequently the English word Trouble (for 
it never was Anglo Saxon) is the easily modified form 
of the Latin Tribulum used figuratively. 

This is a digression, yet it may perhaps serve the pur- 
pose of impressing on the mind, that, besides the Latin, 
another German element, of which we will not say more, 
than that it closely resembled and was ultimately con- 
nected with the Anglo Saxon, crept into our language 
along with the French. Both Saxons and Franks left the 
homes in which we first find them, — and those homes not 
far remote from each other — not more so than the rivers 
Elbe and Rhine — about the same time ; and it is by no 
means certain, that the Germans, who settled in Kent, 
were not, to some extent at least, of Frankish origin. 

Thus it appears, that at the Norman invasion, there 
was another accession of the German element to our lan- 
guage, along with the Latin which had absorbed it. True, 
that element occupies but a subordinate place in the com- 
position of the French language, pretty much the same, 
indeed, as the French itself does in the composition of the 
English; yet, nevertheless, it exercised a very decided in- 
fluence on the character of the Latin language, which had 
previously been spoken in France. And this, too, in a 
manner precisely similar to that in which the Norman 
French affected the Saxon ; namely, in destroying the pre- 
existent organization of the national tongue, and leaving it 
in that condition, without making any attempts to restore 
the devastation it caused. The resemblance of the present 
French verbal conjugation to the Latin, is perhaps, more 
minute and striking, than that of the English to the Saxon; 
yet the inflexions of Nouns Substantive, the comparison of 
Adjectives and Adverbs, and, perhaps generally, the useful 
conventionalities of language have been every whit as 
severely dealt with in the old Latin as in our old Saxon. 



COMPARATIVE CLAIMS OF LATIN AND ANGLO SAXON. 187 

Still, as in English, the character and bulk of the language 
is Saxon, so in French the character and bulk is Latin. 1 

So far, then, as relates to our own language and the 
fresh constituents which have had access to it through the 
French, we may confine our attention generally speaking 
to two only, the Latin and the Anglo Saxon, or rather the 
Anglo Saxon and Latin, for the former has in several 
respects prior claims to our own consideration. These 
claims are founded; first on the ground of the intrinsic 
linguistic importance of the Anglo Saxon — its great anti- 
quity and its freedom from adulteration ; secondly, on the 
ground of its relative importance to us as the only descen- 
dants of those whose language it formerly was. 

On these grounds the claims of Anglo Saxon far exceed 
those of the Latin language. It seems, that our long con- 
tinued connexion with Rome, whether that connexion have 
been of a military, ecclesiastic, or literary nature, has had 
the effect of concealing this great fact from our eyes and 
leading us almost unconsciously to assign to her language 
a position of importance, which is due from us rather 
to the Anglo Saxon. We wish it to be clearly understood, 
that we are speaking of Latin, not as a medium of litera- 
ture, not as it has been adorned by men of the greatest 
genius, and refined by writers the most brilliant, and 
orators the most eloquent that the world has ever seen; 
but we are speaking of Latin as a language, and in its re- 
lation to the other members of the great European family. 
So much of Latin etymology has been lost, or, if not lost, 
has, at least, not yet been investigated ; the process and 
rationale of its construction is so obscure; that it can 
occupy but a secondary position in the rank of those lan- 
guages, which are fitted to throw light on the earliest 
operations of the mind as they developed themselves in 
the form of speech. 

Nor need we be surprised at this. 

Cast but a pebble on the smooth surface of the brook 
and the trembling agitation is borne in a thousand concen- 

1 See Appendix to this page. 



188 MIGRATION AND ITS EFFECTS. 

trie annulations to the surrounding waters ; cast in 
another, and immediately the pleasing regularity is lost, 
and a hopeless confusion succeeds. Or, watch the waves 
of the ocean as they break in regular succession on the 
shingly beach of some sheltered bay, and then ascend some 
beetling crag which overlooks the seething caldron fathoms 
below. Watch those furious waves as they rush on like 
crested warriors to storm the rock-bound coast, watch how 
they lash its basement, leap up its sides for a moment, and 
then repulsed return but to carry confusion amongst their 
yet advancing comrades. 

And the history of the population of the world, as 
it has been accomplished by successive waves of migration 
transmitted apparently from one common centre, seems 
but to find a parallel in the above simile. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE VALUE OF ANGLO SAXON-FIRST, AS ILLUSTRATING 
THE FORMATION OF LANGUAGE GENERALLY, AND OF 
ENGLISH IN PARTICULAR —SECONDLY, AS DISCOVER- 
ING THE TRUE MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS.— 
EXAMPLES.— CONCLUSION. 

The Sanscrit is a language which admits of complete 
analysis, the most perfect and symmetrical of any now in 
existence. The reason why it is so is obviously because no 
ulterior circumstances have occurred to disarrange those 
forms of thought in which the human mind at first 
disposed itself. And doubtless the fewer the causes which 
at any past time have tended to disturb the original shape 
and disposition of a language, the more correctly will that 
language register the history of its formation. Of course 
this amounts to the same thing as saying, that the purer 
the descent the clearer will be the insight afforded into the 
logic of the formation of language. In this respect the 
Anglo Saxon has pre-eminently the advantage over both 
Latin and Greek. Its descent is much purer, and conse- 
quently its antiquity is greater. Like the Sanscrit it has 
had fewer catastrophes to modify, or destroy its primaeval 
articulation, and it, therefore, more clearly reveals the suc- 
cessive processes of human thought engaged in its construc- 
tion. It admits of a very tolerable analysis, too, which has 
not, perhaps, even yet been pushed to its extreme limits. 
Give us the monosyllabic portion of the language, two, or 
three, primary verbs ; tell us the meaning of a few ter- 
minal forms — these probably will turn out to have been, 
or to be, monosyllabic substantives too — and we may be 
said to possess the materials out of which the language has 
been formed. 

We can do little more than call attention to this 
remarkable characteristic in the construction of the Anglo 



190 ANGLO SAXON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

Saxon language; a characteristic, which, while it creates a 
broad line of distinction between the Saxon and those 
other languages with which Englishmen usually come in 
contact, does at the same time exalt it far beyond them 
in point of illustrating the principles on which language 
generally, and our own in particular, has been constructed. 
At the risk of being thought tedious, however, we will, by 
way of illustrating this position make a few extracts, prin- 
cipally from Dr. Bosworth's larger Anglo Saxon grammar, 
to the chapters on the Verb and Noun in which we 
must refer the reader, if he wish to see the subject more 
fully discussed. 

ANGLO SAXON NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. 

We start, then, from the Noun, or Noun Substantive, 
the most important and essential part of speech. 

Anglo Saxon Substantives are of two kinds, Simple 
and Compound. The former, as their name would imply, 
are monosyllabic in form • the latter are formed by com- 
bining two, or more, of the simple Substantives together. 
Thus, from Ac, An oak, and Corn, Corn, is formed the 
substantive Acorn, An acorn ; from Wig, An idol, or temple, 
and Crseft, An art, is formed Wigcroeft, Witchcraft, &c. 

Besides the casual combination of substantives, there 
are other terminal syllables, which either are, or have 
been independent substantives. The following are some 
of these together with their real, or supposed, signification, 
and the English forms they have bequeathed to us. 

Dom, Judgement, Power, surviving in the English 
Doom, and -dom. As from Cyne, A king, by the addition 
of this syllable, is formed the substantive Cynedom, a 
kingdom ; from Freo, A lord, or Freeman, the substantive 
Freodom, Freedom, &c. 

Rice, Power, Dominion. Example : Bisceop-rice, A 
bishopric, i. e. the dominion of a Bishop. 1 

1 Though this is the only compound of Rice, which seems to have 
survived to our time, in the " Vision of Piers Ploughman," we find Kyng-ryche. 
and Hevene-riche. 



NOUN SUBSTANTIVE. 191 

Had, A person, habit, sex, state, order, degree. 
This substantive survives in the English termination 
-hood ; or, as it is generally written by Chaucer, -hade, 
a form still more closely resembling the Saxon model. 
Examples: Bro$or-had, Brotherhood; Mseden-had, Mai- 
denhood; Man-had, Manhood ; Preost-had, Priesthood, &c. 

Scir, A share, or part cut off, A shire, or district. Ex- 
amples : Preost-scy re, the Priest's shire, or Parish^ 
Scir-gerifa, A shire-reeve ; i. e. by contraction A sheriff. 

1 The attempt has been made, as it seems to me without sufficient 
grounds, to derive the word garish from the Anglo Saxon preost-sc'yre, by con- 
traction. If it is so derived, then the contraction is at least an extraordinary 
one. But, indeed, the earlier forms in which the word occurs, as for instance 
in " the Vision of Piers Ploughman," and in Chaucer, seem to point rather to 
a Norman, than a Saxon origin, as the following quotations will show : — 
" And yyele {evil) in this y-holde 

In parisshes of Engelonde ; 

Eor persons (parsons) and parish-preestes 

That sholde the people shryve, 

Ben curatours (Curates) called, 

To know and to hele 

All that ben hir parisshens, 

Penaunce to enjoigne." Lines 14483—14490. 

And again, in Chaucer's graphic description of the Persone, one of the guests 
at " the Tabard," who contributed various homilies on religious and moral 
subjects for the edification of his fellow pilgrims, and as his share towards 
their mutual divertisement. 

" A good man there was of religioun, 

That was a poure persone of a toune 

But rich he was of holy thought and werk, 

He was also a lerned man, a clerk, 

That Cristes gospel trewely wolde preche. 

His parishens (parishioners) devoutly wolde he teche. 

Benigne he was and wonder diligent, 

And in adversite full patient : 

And swiche he was ypreved often sithes, 

Pul loth were him to cursen for his tithes, 

But rather wolde he yeven out of doute, 

Unto his pour parishens about, 

Of his offring, and eke of his substance. 

He coude in litel thing have suffisance. 

Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder, 

But he ne left nought for no rain ne thonder 

In sikenesse and in mischief to visite 

The ferrest in his parish, moche and lite, 

Upon his fete, and in his hand a staf." 

Prologue to Cant. Tales, line 469. 
If parish had been contracted from the Saxon preost-sc'yre, these early 



192 VERBAL FORMATION. 

Scip, A shape, form, state, dignity, answering to the 
English termination -ship. Examples : Freond-scip, Friend- 
ship) ; WeorS-scip, Worship. 

-er, or -ere, from the Saxon Wer, A man, corresponding 
to our termination -er. As, for example : Writ-ere (i. e. 
Writ-wer) A man who writes, A writer. Fiscere (i. e. Fisc- 
wer) A man who fishes ; A fisherman. 

Such are some of the terminating syllables and their 
meanings. Others there are besides, whose signification 
is more obscure; such are -ing, -ling, -incle, -els, -el, 
-a, &c. 

But we must pass on to take a hasty glimpse at the 
construction of the Saxon verbs. 



SAXON VERBAL FORMATION. 

The mental operation, which has been engaged in 
the formation of the next important part of speech, the 
Verb, is, if we assume the truth of the theory propounded 
by the best Anglo Saxon scholars, and in itself highly 
probable on account of its simplicity, no less conspicuous, 
than that in the formation of the compound substantives. 

Indeed, the process seems little more, than converting 
Substantives into Verbs by the simplest method possible, — 
that of affixing to them one of the three " almost pri- 
mitive" verbs Unnan, or An, To give, Gangan, or Gan, 
To go, and Agan, To have, or possess. 

By the aid of these transforming elements the vast class 
of Saxon verbs has been constructed out of the Substan- 
tives. What could be more simple ? there is here no fresh 



forms of it would have exhibited a closer resemblance to the Saxon than they 
do. But the resemblance of parish and parishens to the French forms 
paroisse and paroissien, seem to us conclusive, that at least no Saxon root is 
involved. Whence comes the French paroisse we cannot now stop to 
enquire. 



VERBAL FORMATION. 



193 



call for ingenuity, or invention, and no waste of intellec- 
tual resource. 1 

The meaning of the verb varies slightly, according as 
the substantive is verbalized by one or other of these 
primary verbs. 

The following examples will sufficiently illustrate the 
method of verbal formation. 

The verb Unnan, or An, To give, affixed to the sub- 
stantives : 

Cnott, A knot,'] f Cnytt-an, To give a knot, To 

-j knit. 

Coss, A kiss, l + -u J Coss-an, To give a kiss, To 

, kiss. 

vpvhs 

D eel- an, To give a part, To 
^- deal, or divide. 

&c. &c. 

The verb Gan, To go, affixed to/the substantives 

Bse^-ian, To go to a bath, 



Dael, A part, 



J 



BseS, A bath, 



produces 



To wash. 



Bidde, A prayer, , fa Q Bidd-an, To go to Prayer, 



Cid, A quarrel, 



verbs To pray. 

Cid-an, To go to a quarrel, 
To quarrel. 

The verb Agan, To have, possess, acquire, affixed to 
the substantives 



1 The following is part of Dr. Bosworth's note on the formation of verbs, 
p. 134:— 

" Anan, which in its simplest form is An, makes end, and, &c., for anend 
(in the present participle) ; and, ad, od, &c. for anad : gangan, which is 
only gan doubled, makes gend, gand, &c., and ged, gad, &c. for gangend, and 
gangad" 

2 It may seem that the verbs compounded of Gan terminate the same as 
those of An, and that, therefore, the distinction is fanciful rather than real. 
It is not so, however ; for the older forms of verbs compounded of Gan, To go, 
end in -gan and not -an. The earlier forms of the examples above given 
were Bsefc-gan, Bidde-gan, Cid-gan. See " Bosivorth's Anglo Saxon Gram- 
mar" p. 135, note. 

O 



194 FORMATIVE PROCESS. — SUBSTANTIVES. 

Blostm, A flower, 7\ fBlostrn-ian, 1 To have a flower, 

| produces | to blossom. 

Car, Care, y the <J Car-ian, To have care. 

Luf, Love, verbs Luf-ian, To have love, to 

J [_ love. 

Sometimes, however, the substantive, which forms the 
hypothecate of the verb, has disappeared from the language 
in which its existence has been perpetuated by that verb, 
and must be sought for in some kindred tongue. Amongst 
this class Dr. Bosworth would write the Anglo Saxon 
verbs : — 

Ber-an, To bear, ~\ § f Bar, (Franco Theotisc),i^rmV. 
Writ-an, To write, I * J Writs, (Gothic), A letter. 
Cunn-an, To know, f > ] Can, (Keltic), A head. 
Cenn-an, To procreate, J & l^Con, (Icelandic), A woman. 

When words had been formed to express action of 
various kinds, nothing is easier to conceive, than that those 
parts of the verb which express the continuation, or state 
of action, and the completion, or effect of action, which 
parts are the 3rd person singular of the indefinite, or 
present tense, and the past participle (probably, little else 
than the past participle of one of the three primary verbs 
above noticed, affixed to the radicle or substantive portion 
of the verb), should in turn be used to designate; first, 
agents, or objects, in which the main idea of the verb is 
prevalent ; secondly, things, which are the result of the 
completed action of the verb; and thirdly, states, conditions, 
qualities, &c, which are intimated to us by such action. 

Hence we arrive, by means of the verb, at the three 
following classes of words : 

1st. At a class of Substantives ending in the Anglo 
Saxon in -ft, and in English in -th, examples of 
which, as filth, health, wealth, &c, may be found on 
page 49. 

1 Earlier forms— Blostm-agan, Car-agan, Luf-igan. 



FORMATIVE PROCESS. ADJECTIVES. 195 

2nd. At another class of Substantives, formed from 
the past participle ending in -d, -t, or -n, in examples 
of which, such as bread, head, weft, haft, welkin, 
yarn, &c, the whole language is sufficiently abun- 
dant. 

3rd. At a class of adjective words, descriptive of state, 
condition, or quality, ending, as in the last class, in 
-d, -t, or -n; examples of which are lost, ovm, forlorn, 
afeard, 1 &c. 

So much for the Verb, its formation and the functions 
it discharged in enriching and furnishing language. The 
third class of verbal derivatives naturally leads us to 
the consideration of descriptive, or adjective words gener- 
ally, and the methods by which the want of such words, in 
any but the most barbarous societies of men, was supplied. 

ADJECTIVAL FORMATION. 

The first form in which we meet with the Adjective is 
the same as that of the Substantive ; that is, the same word 
was used to express, not only a substance, or thing, but 
also the nature, or quality of that substance, or thing. 
Thus, the same word, both in Anglo Saxon and English 
is used to express both the Substantive Light, and the 
quality or nature of Light. So also with the word Deep, or 
The deep, the same word expressed both. 

The next step in the formation of Adjectives was to 
append to the monosyllabic Substantives, whether those 
Substantives appear as the roots of Verbs, or otherwise, 
one of the terminations -ed, -en, end, or -ig. The former 
three of these terminations are Participles past and present 
of the verb Unnan, To give, or To add ; the latter -ig, is 
from lean, To increase or add, and in meaning, therefore, 



1 Though we have given examples in English only, the originals in all 
cases are to be found in the Anglo Saxon. 



196 ADJECTIVES. 

closely resembling the others, -ed and -en. The termina- 
tion -end answers to the English present participle in -ing, 
as Anglo Saxon Lung-end, Loving, &c. The termination 
-ig has been merged into the English termination -y ; as 
Blod-ig, Bloody, iEn-ig, Any, Crseft-ig, Crafty, &c. 

The syllables -en, -ed, in conjunction with Substantives 
proper, appear in the words : — 

Bece, beech Bucene, beech-en. 

Braes, brass Brsesen, braz-en. 

Wulle, wool Wull-en, wooll-en} 

Gold, gold Gyld-en, gold-en, 

Ly'n, flax Lin-en, linen. 

&c. &c. 

Ecge, edge Ecg-ed, edg-ed. 

Sceo', a shoe Ge-sceod, shod. 

Hyrne, a horn Hyrn-ed, horn-ed. 

&c. &c. 

The meaning of these syllables, which convert the ori- 
ginal monosyllabic Substantives into Adjectives, (as before, 
by the aid of the primitive Verbs, they were converted into 
Verbs), is simply that of addition to some other Substantive, 
whose nature and quality it is thus intended to subjoin. A 
" linen shirt," then, only means, if we thoroughly analyze 
the construction, u flax add shirt ;" "brazen goblets," "brass 
add goblets ;" &c. 

But, besides these verbal terminations, there are also 
substantive terminations, which, when affixed to other 
Substantives, are made to denote quality, and thus 
produce Adjective Words. Such for instance are the 
Substantives Lie, A form, figure, body, (English -ly) ; Sum, 
A part, or portion of a thing; Fyll {plenitudo), The fill, 
plenty (English -full). 

Examples, 

God, God God-lie, Godlike. 

Freo, A Lord Freo-lic,/ree. 

1 I question the propriety of doubling the final consonant in this and 
similar words. 



ANGLO SAXON. 197 

Wynne, pleasure Winsum, pleasing. 

Woh, woe Woh-full, injurious . 

Tung, tongue Tung-full, loquacious. 

Weorc, work Weorc-sum, worksome, i. e. 

irksome. 
Bug-an, To bow Boc-sum, flexible, obedient, 

buxom. 

Other terminations, too, there were used by the Anglo 
Saxon, which, as they have transmitted no descendants 
to us, we need not stop to mention here. 1 

Of course the method of analysis, or synthesis we 
rather ought to say, which we have briefly applied to 
the construction of the Substautive, the Verb, and the 
Adjective, is capable of a much more extended application. 
But we have pursued this subject far enough for our 
present purpose. We are making no new discoveries. 
All we have said, and very much more we might say, 
has been known for years. 

Our object is simply to afford some insight into the 
constructive principles of the Anglo Saxon, and thence, 
as a necessary consequence, of the English Language. 
And there are two characteristics which seem to us 
particularly striking in the formative processes we have 
been considering. 

These two characteristics are ceconomy and intelligence. 
Starting with nothing more than a few monosyllabic 
roots, and two, or three, primitive verbs, we have seen 
how the mind of man has raised a superstructure of 
Substantive, Verb, and Adjective ; and formed a surface, as 
it were, capable of receiving every impress, and registering 
the most varied conceptions of which that mind was capable. 
When we see for ourselves how replete with meaning, 
how full of life and individuality words become when 

1 The Saxon termination -fsest, has, however, transmitted two which 
have been already noticed. They are Stafcol-fsest, steadfast, and Scam-faest, 
shamefast. 



198 ITS VALUE AS A REFEltEE. 

considered from this primaeval point of view, it is no 
longer difficult to credit the assertion, that there is 
not in language, — that is in language where the plastic 
moulding of the mind has not been defaced by subse- 
quent catastrophe, — that there is not in such language 
anything arbitrary, or any such thing as capricious usage. 
Yet who dare assert this of our own language, or indeed of 
half the languages of southern Europe ? Would the Eng- 
lish of to day, bear the rigid test which the Anglo Saxon 
will sustain with such unflinching firmness? Certainly 
not. Yet still it is possible, by recurring to the source 
whence so many of our words and terminations have sprung, 
to restore to them some portion of the life and vitality they 
have now lost. And be it observed, that the Anglo Saxon 
is the only source whence we can derive information 
on these and kindred points ; and be it further observed, 
that when once words and terminations have lost the in- 
telligent spirit, which at first called into being and ani- 
mated them, from that time forth, the tie which coupled 
them with, and, when pronounced, recalled a particular 
emotion of the mind, is dissevered ; henceforth they be- 
come, to all intents and purposes, mere arbitrary sounds, 
significant indeed to the ear, and, for a while it may be, 
suggestive of the same emotion as before to the mind, but 
fluctuating in their character, and uncertain in their mean- 
ing, because the clue which alone could conduct us aright 
has been dropped. The immense majority of Saxon words 
in the English language has been referred to ad nauseam, 
and it may perhaps be considered superfluous to call atten- 
tion to those few unhappy remnants of Inflexion and Syntax 
to which we are still pleased to assign the name of English 
Grammar. If we do so, it is merely to point out, that 
these remains are of a strictly Anglo Saxon character. 
Indeed, it seems a remarkable fact, that when our lan- 
guage was swarming with French words, and our country 
with Frenchmen— no not Frenchmen — that our English 
should be so remarkably free from French inflexion, or 
construction ; so free, indeed, that we cannot call to mind 
a single instance of either. 



THEN, THERE, ETC. 199 

After the complaint of Robert Holcot, that it was 
the custom for children in those days 1 first to learn 
French, and from the French the Latin language, this 
seems very strange. Yet it is no more strange than true. 
And here we have a strong argument too in favour of the 
Anglo Saxon over every other language ; because it gives 
us the key to our own Syntax and Grammatical con- 
struction, and affords us a full and entire view of that 
symmetrical structure, of which the English Language can 
only be considered the decayed and dismantled ruins. 
Neither French, nor Latin are of any assistance to us 
in this respect; German, it is true, is much more so, 
though the claims of German are not to be compared with 
those of the Anglo Saxon. Consider for a moment 
the words Then, There, When, Where, Wherefore, &c. Will 
French, or Latin (or even the German directly) assist 
us at all in investigating the nature and meaning of 
these words ? And what say our Grammarians ? Oh ! 
they call them Adverbs of time, or place; or Inter- 
rogatives, or something else equally vague, but equally 
useful and effective in concealing their own ignorance. 
While the fact is, that these words are as definite in their 
nature, and concise in their meaning, as the Latin 
correlatives Eo, here, In that place ; Qua, (sc. parte) 
Where ; Quare, Wherefore ; &c. 

There, is nothing more than the regular dative of 
the Article, or relative pronoun, we have already had 

1 Namely, at the beginning of the Eeign of Edward III. the following 
passage, on the education of children in England, is taken from Trevisa's 
Translation of " Hygden's Polychronicon :" 

" Children in Scole against the usage and maner of all other nations 
beeth compelled for to leve hire owne langage and for to construe hir 
lessons, and hire thynges in Erenche: and so they have sethe Normans 
came first into Engelond. Also gentilemen children beeth taught to speke 
Erensche from the time that they bith rokked in hire cradell and kunneth 
speke and play with a childes broche. And uplondissche men will likne 
himself to gentylmen, and fondeth with greet besynesse for to speke Erensche 
to be told of. This manner was moche used to for first deth (time) and 
is sith some dele changed. So that now the year of our Lord a thousand 
thre hundred and four score and five, and of the second Kyng Richard after 
the Conquest nyne and in alle grammere scoles in Englond children lereth 
Erensche and eenstrueth." 



200 THEN, THERE, ETC. 

occasion to notice in the chapter on than, and was 
originally used, not alone, but in conjunction with the 
substantive Stowe, A place, just as the Latin Eo was with 
Loco. And "j?8ere stowe" exactly corresponded to the 
Latin Eo loco, in that place. Then, when by frequent use 
and for the sake of brevity, the Stowe in the former, 
and the Loco in the latter were dropped, we have left 
the two Relative Pronouns " ^aere" in the Saxon {There, 
English,) and Eo in the Latin. And so, had we time, 
it would be easy to show, that the other words of 
this class are equally definite in their meaning and 
construction. 1 

But, indeed, it is not one class of words alone but the 
whole language, more or less, which has suffered, and still 
suffers from our neglect. Words are but the paintings of 
the mind, and like other paintings they are liable to 
become obscured by neglect and time. Yet, to take down 
these pictures from the dark corners where they have 
been too long suspended, to brush away the cobwebs, 
to remove from them some of the dust and dirt of 
ages, and bid them stand out from the canvass with 
somewhat of their old expression and vivacity, seems to be 
one of the highest aims of practical philology. 

For the sake of illustration, we have gathered a 
few miscellaneous words together, whose meaning seems 
to receive fresh light by referring them to their Anglo 
Saxon sources. 



1 It is more than probable, that what we are now compelled to call 
the definite Article, in such constructions as "the more the merrier," is 
in reality the Ablative, or Instrumental case of the same pronoun Se, Seo, 
)>oet, and corresponds exactly to the use of quo eo in similar constructions. 

" The second condition of veray confession is, that it be hastily done : for 
oertes, if a man hadde a dedly wound ever the lenger that he taried to 
warishe himself, the more wold it corrupt and haste him to his deth, 
and also the wound wold be the werse for to hole." 

The Fersones Tale. 



EXAMPLES. WOMAN, WORLD. 201 

A. S. Wif, 1 a Woman, a Female, Wife. 

This word in the Anglo Saxon had a much wider 
application than it has in English. It was in fact a 
feminine affix, used to denote the female gender. Ac- 
cordingly, we find 

Wifcild, i. e. A female child, a girl, 
Wifeynn, The female kind, 
Wiflac, Matrimony, 

as well as Wifmann; i. e. A female specimen of the Human 
species, (Fcemina homo) whence by contraction comes 
the word Woman. In the Anglo Saxon, however, Wif- 
mann signified, not only A woman, but also a Lay 
Person who was permitted to marry. 

A. S. Wer, (Lat. Vir), a Man, 
still enters into the composition of the following words : — 

Canterbury, i.e. A. S. Cantwaraburh, The town of the 

men of Kent. 
Wer-wolf, The man-wolf, or devil. 
World, The world, 1 An age, or generation of men. 

A. S. How- an, To row. 
Ro$er, An oar. 

From the latter of these comes the word Rudder, that 
part by which a ship is steered. How it has come to 
have this signification is fully explained by its own ety- 

1 Some of the German writers on Anglo Saxon ignore the letter W, and 
write V in its place. Yet, it should seem they are scarcely justified in 
doing so, unless, indeed, as is not likely, they pronounce the V like our W. 
We cannot but think, that the pronunciation of our provincial English 
must be a surer guide to the pronunciation of Anglo Saxon, than that of 
the present High German spoken on the continent. 
1 Qui cum viro aliquo una eodem tempore vivunt. — Ettmuller, sub voce. 



202 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS 

mology, and by the fact, that the earliest method of 
steering ships was by means of the oars (for I believe 
there were two) placed near the stern of the vessel. 

A. S. Stig, A way, A path. 
Stig-an, 1 To ascend. 
Hence are derived, 
Stair or Stairs, from Anglo Saxon Stae'ger, A step, degree. 
Stee, the provincial word for, A ladder. 
Stile, Anglo Saxon Stigel, A step, a ladder. 
Stirrup, from the combination of the above root Stig 
with the Anglo Saxon Rap, a rope. A stirrup, there- 
fore, is nothing more than a Stee-rope, or ladder of 
rope, for the purpose of ascending the saddle. But, 
indeed, there is no occasion to go so far back as the 
Anglo Saxon Stig-rap. In the " Romance of King 
Richard/' the word occurs in a form but slightly 
different : 

" In his shield verament 
Was paynted a serpent, 
Wyth the spere that Richard held. 
He bare him thorugh under his shelde, 
Non of hys armour might him last, 
Brydell and peytrell all to-braste, 
Hys gyrthes and his steropes also. 
Hys mare to ground whent tho." 

A. S. Georn, Eager, anxious. 
Geornian, To desire. 

Hence have descended to us, 

Earnest, which is merely the Saxon Geornest, that is, 
the superlative of the above Adjective; and the verb 
To yearn, or long for. 

A. S. Gise, Gese, Yes. 

According to Ettmuller, this particle of affirmation is 
composed of the Anglo Saxon Gea, Even so, and Si, Let 

1 See also " Tooke's Diversions of Purley," p. 509. 



DISC OVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON CORN, FINGER, ETC. 203 

it be. Yes, therefore, implies assent, not from any arbi- 
trary usage, or conventional signification, but because it 
contains within itself the true condition of assent. 



A. S. Ceosan, To choose. 

Corn, Anglo Saxon Corn, i.e. the Past Participle of 
the above Verb Cor en, Chosen. Corn, therefore implies 
by its very name that part of the plant which is chosen, 
or separated from the straw and chaff. 

Cyrnel, is probably a verbal derivative from the same 
source and with the same meaning as Corn. 

A. S. Fangan or Fo'n, To take, Seize, Receive, 
Undertake. 

The following important words seem undoubtedly 
connected with Fangan, or Fo'n, To take: 

Finger, Anglo Saxon Finger; that is, the part which 
takes or receives a thing. 

Fang, Anglo Saxon Fang, A taking, or grasp. This 
word, however, may perhaps be the root of the verb itself. 

Although one feels strongly inclined to look to this 
verb as that from which we have derived the word faith, 
we fear the objections against such a derivation are too 
strong to be overcome. Mr. Home Tooke, indeed, 
attempted long ago to set the matter at rest, but his 
theory, though plausible enough, in outward appearance, 
will be found to fail when put to the test. He says 
iC Faith, Anglo Saxon Fasg$ — That which one covenant- 
ed or engageth. It is the third person singular of the 
indicative of Fagan, Pangere, Pagere, To engage, To cov- 
enant, To contract^ Unfortunately for Mr. Tooke the 
only meaning of Fseg$, or Fgehft, (for it is written in 



201 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS 

both ways) in the Anglo Saxon is A feud, or quarrel, 
and is a derivative, not of the verb Faegan, 1 To plant, To 
fix, but of 

Fian, To hate, 

which is also, as Mr Tooke has shown, connected with 
Fiend, Anglo Saxon Feond, and Foe, Anglo Saxon Fah, 
the former being the Present Participle, the latter the 
Past Tense of the same verb. 

Indeed, the verb Faegan has not produced any verbal 
substantive in -3. And the same objection lies against 
looking for a solution to the verb Fo'n, To take ; because 
neither has thus transmitted a Substantive, which, either in 
sound or meaning, could possibly have given birth to the 
word Faith. If the Anglo Saxon F<eh3, Strife, Contention, 
be in reality the same word, then we require to know 
how, in passing from Saxon to English, its meaning has 
become so seriously modified. That it was unknown as 
a Saxon word in its present acceptation seems pretty 
certain, for we find the word Geleafa, Belief, constantly 
used where we should now expect to find Faith? The 
question, therefore, seems at present an open one. 

A. S. Hindan, (Capere) To take. 

As Finger is connected with, and owes its name to, 
the verb Fangan, To receive, because it is that which 
apprehends, or receives a thing, so in like manner, Rand 
(A. S. Hand) is for the same reason connected with 
the verb Hindan, To take ; as also 



1 Indeed, it seems not improbable, that Mr Tooke was carried away 
by the meaning of the Latin Pcmgo, or Pago, which better suited his 
purpose, and acquired a wider signification with the Latins than the cog- 
nate form, Fcegan, possessed with the Saxons. 

2 "We habbaS gesseed embe >set Pater noster, nu we wyllaft secgan 
eow >one geleafan \>e on >am Credan stent, swa swa se wisa Augustinus, 
be J?sere Halgan >rynnysse trahtaode." 

Homilies of Mlfric. De fide Catholicd. 



DISCOVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON. — HAND, HOUND, ETC. 205 

Handle, (A. S. handel), that by which a thing is 
handled. 

Hunter, (A. S. hunta), verbal substantive in -a, (sig- 
nifying An agent, or actor), one who takes prey by 
pursuit. For the same reason, 

Hound, (A. S. hund), a dog which takes prey by 
running it down, is so called. 1 

A. S. Here, An army. 

We have already had occasion to notice this word 
as entering into the composition of 

Harbour, and 
Harbinger. 

Besides these, however, and another of its compounds, 
Herepath, (A. S. Herepse^S, An army -path), which survives 
only as a family name, there is another interesting little 
word which hence derives its origin. 

1 Although we can quote no authorities in favour of such an hypo- 
thesis it seems far from improbable that the Anglo Saxon and Mseso- 
Gothic hund, A hundred, is also connected with this family of words. 
And what seems rather to make in favour of this supposition, is the 
peculiar use of the word in Anglo Saxon and Gothic computations. The 
Saxons prefixed this word hund to numerals, from 70 to 120. The Goths 
postfixed the same word. Thus, after sixtig, sixty, the Saxons wrote hund- 
seofontig, seventy, &c. up to HUNDtwelftig, a hundred and twenty. Both 
Junius and Ettmuller think the word hund a mere expletive, yet may 
it not rather indicate the method by which the Saxons performed their 
arithmetical calculations, namely, by their hands and fingers ? The number 
ten of the fingers (for the thumb, if our derivation be correct, is also a 
finger) is generally allowed to account for the universal prevalence of 
the denary scale of notation, we surely, then, cannot be surprised if we 
find the word hand occurring also. If we suppose the hand to have 
been closed when the first ten was completed, and as indeed its probable Ety- 
mology from A. S. Ty'nan, To shut, or close, renders it easy to do, and a 
finger of the other open hand to have been successively bent to denote each 
successive ten, and then this hand itself to have been entirely closed to denote 
the last, or seventh ten, (or some similar process adopted), we shall then 
perhaps, be better able to understand why hund was prefixed to numerals 
from 70 to 120, and also why hundred (100) being the tens marked, or 
reckoned by the closing of the five digits on both hands, is so called. But of 
course this is hypothetical. 



206 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS 

The Herring is only the Anglo Saxon Hering, 1 that 
is, the Shoal, or Army fish, because it is accustomed to 
swim in large shoals. Here then we may learn a lesson 
in Natural History, as well as in Etymology. 

Lisan, To trace, To apprehend, To know. 
(Secutus, Consecutus sum, Accepi Scio. 2 ) 
The past participle of this verb, Lisen, by the change of 
s into r becomes liren. Hence we have obtained the 
following words : 

Lore, A. S. L&r, doctrine, instruction ; Last, A cobbler's 
last, (A. S. Last, A trace, A footstep). 
So, then, even the cobbler's Last has a meaning of its 
own, and is not without reason applied to denote the foot- 
model so necessary to the shoe-maker. Indeed, the very 
name of shoe-maker in the Anglo Saxon is Last-wyrhta, i.e. 
Last-worker. Often as we had heard of the cobbler's last we 
are not ashamed to confess, that it was a mere sound, 
whose very object was unknown to us, until it sprung into 
life an Anglo Saxon word. Are we alone in this respect? 

There is another old Verb which may properly come 
under our notice here. It is now obsolete, and would, 
perhaps, be scarcely deserving of notice were it not that 
another Verb, still in common use, is, or rather has been, 
liable to be confounded with it. We mean the verb To 
lere, (Anglo Saxon Lser-an, To teach). This verb, being 
formed regularly, according, to the law of Saxon verbal 
formation, as already indicated, namely, from Lar, Doctrine, 
Instruction, and one of the primitive verbs, must and did in 
the Saxon signify To give instruction, To teach. The root of 
the second verb Leorn-ian, which enters also into the com- 
position of Leorn-ere, A learner, or scholar, and Leornung, 
Learning, is undoubtedly connected with Lar, Doctrine, 

1 The aptitude of the name must at once commend itself to anyone, who 
has had the good fortune of being out at sea, when the herrings were on the 
water. 

2 These are the meanings which Ettmiiller attaches to the word. It is 
somewhat difficult to render them accurately and yet intelligibly in English. 



DISCOVERED BY THE ANGLO SAXON. LORE, ETC. 207 

Instruction ; but the Verb Leom-ian, which is formed from 
it, signifies the act of obtaining instruction, in contradistinc- 
tion to that of imparting it. Even in Chaucer's time, both 
these verbs were used, though it should seem indifferently, 
and without a just appreciation of their different meanings, 
as the following passage will show : — 

" This cursed craft whoso wol exercise, 
He shal no good have, that him may suffice, 
For all the good he spendeth thereaboute 
He lesen shal, therof have I no doute. 
Whoso that listeth uttren his folie, 
Let him come forth and lernen multiplie : 
And every man that hath ought in his cofre, 
Let him appere and wex a philosophre, 
Ascaunce that craft is so light to lere. 
Nay, nay, God wot, al be he monk or frere, 
Preest, or chanon, or any other wight, 
Though he sit at his book both day and night 
In lerning of this elvish nice lore, 
All is in vain, and parde mochel more 
To lerne a lewed man this subtiltee." 

The Chanon Yemannes Tale. 

In this short quotation, the verb To learn, seems used 
for both To learn, and To teach ; and not only so, but the 
Verb To lere seems to have dropped its true signification of 
teaching, and to be used in the same loose way as the verb 
To learn. 1 

In the "Vision of Piers Ploughman," however, the dis- 
tinction between the two verbs To lere, and To learn, is 
somewhat more carefully preserved ; though even at this 
early date the Verb To learn, seems to have been used to 
signify either To lere, (i. e. To teach), or To learn. Thus, 
in the following passage : — 

" ' I shal cessen of my sowyng,' quod Piers, 
And swynke noght so harde 
Ne about my bely joye, 
So bisy be na-more; 
And but if Luc lye, 

1 Cf. in French the use of Apprendre. Apprenez-vous le Franqais ? Do 
you learn French ? II m' apprend a lire. He teaches (learns) me to read. 
Though Fnseigner is more correct and usual than Apprendre in the latter 
sense. H. N. 



208 MEANING OF ENGLISH WORDS 

He lereth us by foweles; 1 
We sholde noght be to bisy 
About the worldes blisse ; 

* * * * 

'What,' quod the preest to Perkyn, 
1 Peter ! as me thynketh, 
Thou art lettred a litel: — 
Who lerned thee on boke?'" 

Piers tells us how Grace gave each man some gift to 
guide himself wherewith, " That ydelnesse encombre bym 
noght, envye ne pride." He says : 

"And some he lered to laboure, 
A lele 2 life and a trewe ; 
And some he taughte to tilie, 
To dyche and to thecche, 
To wynne with her 3 liilode 
Bi loore 4 of his teehynye." 

"And some he lered to lyve 
In longynge to ben hennes ; 5 
In poverte and in penaunce, 
To preie for alle Cristene, 
And all he lered to be lele, 
And ech a craft love ootlier." 

But the verb To lere, is now entirely obsolete, and pro- 
bably, has been so for a great length of time. The use of 
its survivor, the verb To learn, is now pretty clearly 
denned, though it would appear that it has only recently 
become so. 

In the Prayer Book version of the Psalms, it frequently 
occurs in the sense of teaching. Thus, in Psalm xxv. 8, 
" Such as are gentle them shall he learn his way." 
Psalm cxix. 66, "O learn me true understanding and 
knowledge." 6 

1 The fowles of the air. 

8 Loyal. 3 Their. * Lore. 5 Hence. 

6 I have not found any instances of this usage in our authorized 
Version; so that it would appear the error was discovered and rectified 
previous to the publication of that Version about the year a.d. 1611. 



DISCOVERED BY THE ANG. SAX. BOOK, YULE, &C. 209 

Hornet is the A. S. Hyrnet, i. e. Hyrn-ed, The horned 



one. 



Beech, booh. Both these words spring from the same 
Anglo Saxon root Boce or Bece, A beech tree. Here again 
Philology becomes our instructor, not in natural history 
this time, but in the manners and customs of our early 
ancestors. It teaches us in a word, that the first Booh was 
the Beech Tree; that on its bark, or on tablets made out of 
its trunk, our ancestors were in the habit of incising their 
rude Staves or Runes, long before the letters of Greece and 
Rome became known to them, or, perhaps, even before 
those letters were invented. The simple connection of 
these two words is sufficient to tell us all this, even had 
we no other direct testimony, and even had not the 
Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished 
about the 12th century of this era, spoken of "letters 
carved on wood." 1 

Threshold. Anglo Saxon ]?aersc-wald (Wald, or Weald, 
Wood.) It is less easy to discover not the meaning, but the 
rationale of the word Threshold. What is the story of 
its formation, and why is it so called? 

Assuming the above Etymology to be correct, what 
should it indicate or imply? The Saxon Verb J?aersc-an 
signifies To beat, To strike, To thrash, To hnoch at. Does 
the Thresh-old, the Thrash-wood, then, mean the wood 
which must be knocked at in order to obtain admission 
into the house ? If not, what does it mean ? 

Yule is the Geol, or Merry Feast of our Saxon ancestors, 
so called from Gal, merry, pleasant, &c. The same word, 
slightly modified, was used by them to denote the months 
answering to our December and January. The former 
was called, " Se ae'ra Geola," The first Yule ; the latter, 
" Se aeftera Geolu," The after, or second Yule. 



r Literas ligno insculptas secum portarunt." Sax. Gramm. in. p. 52. 

P 



210 WEDLOCK — FARM WELKIN. 

Wedlock. I much doubt whether the composition 
and meaning of this word are understood by half who use 
it. As the Saxon Wed-lac, compounded of the Substan- 
tives Wed, A pledge, promise, or agreement, and Lac, A gift, 
it signified first, and literally, A pledge-gift (pignus faederis) 
and was used, not in the narrow and contracted way it 
now is, to designate the matrimonial pledge, but way plight 
or treaty. So says Chaucer in the " Knightes Tale i" 

" Let liirn beware his nekke lieth to uedde." 

That is if Arcite were found, " ever in his lif, by day or 
night o stound in any countrie of this Theseus" his nekke 
would be forfeited in consequence. 

Farm. Here we have a word so simple and so 
common, that we should be ashamed to notice it, were it 
not that its original signification, and the reason of its 
present application seem to have been forgotten. Farm is 
the Anglo Saxon Feorm, 1 food, provision. The Saxon 
verb, Feormian, whence comes our verb To farm, signified 
To procure food, To feed, To support, To entertain. From 
this its original signification it is easy to conceive how its 
second arose ; — how, from being used to denote food, 
support, &c, it afterwards came to denote An establish- 
ment on which food of various kinds is raised. 

Welkin. We have a faint recollection of reading 
somewhere in Lucretius how that the term Universe 
first came to designate the heaven with all its starry 
multitude, from the supposition, that by one turn, or 
revolution, every point in it was successively brought 
before the gaze of the observer. If so, then the word 
welkin is very similar in its construction to the word 
Universe. 

The Saxon Wealc, signifies A revolving, or revolution of 
the heavenly bodies, and the verb Wealcan, making the 
past participle Wealcen, signifies To turn, revolve, roll. 

1 Connected probably with Anglo Saxon Feorh, life. 



CONCLUSION. 211 

Welkin (Anglo Saxon wolken), therefore, simply 
means, that which is rolled over our heads, whether 
as applied to the clouds only, or, more generally, to 
the whole visible area of heaven. 

Such are a few of the words we have stumbled across, 
whose early history and true meaning seem to have 
become buried in oblivion. We forbear to pursue the 
enquiry further, not because examples and instances are 
wanting, — for our whole language abounds with them, — 
but because our object is simply to call attention to 
the importance of this subject, to illustrate it further by 
a few examples to the point, but by no means to ex- 
haust the subject, or to diminish either the obligation, 
or the interest attaching to a personal investigation. 

When a people, who have once possessed a language of 
their own, and that language too, as was the case with the 
Anglo Saxons, of a very early type and pure origin, are 
called to pass through an ordeal so severe as that which it 
was the lot of this country to pass through, in consequence 
of the Norman Invasion, it can excite but little astonish- 
ment that results of the most vital importance, both to the 
people and their language, ensue. 

And the case before us forms no exception to this 
general rule. As regards the people, history speaks in a 
voice of thrilling interest, in tones which cannot fail to 
excite in the breast of every impartial man amongst us, 
be he Norman, or Saxon, an agony of sympathy for the 
sufferers, and of indignation at the profound injustice and 
inhuman barbarity of their oppressors — whom it were 
shame to call conquerors. And, as regards their language, 
there needs not the testimony of history to inform us, for 
itself is its own chronicler. The effect of that terrible 
ordeal was as it were to ossify, or convert it to stone. 
As it entered, so, indeed, in the main as to external form 
did it emerge. But how changed in other respects ! Its 
vitality destroyed, its animation suspended, its delicate 
machinery broken and deranged ; in a word, the spirit 



212 CONCLUSION. 

had fled from the body it had formerly quickened, and left it 
deserted and lifeless. Words which before had been instinct 
with life, nay, glowing with their early force of meaning, 
were now mere sounds, depending for their very existence 
and meaning on the thin superficial soil of diurnal usage. 
And so have they continued even up to our own time. 
No satisfactory attempt has as yet been made to catch up 
again the clue which has so long lain unheeded at our feet, 
or to restore to the body of our language that intelligent 
spirit by which it was formerly animated. Yet the body 
is there, and the limbs are there, only the soul is wanting 
to quicken and make them live again. 

Surely it is not the part of an intelligent people to 
treat this subject any longer with such apathetic indiffer- 
ence; — a people who, like ourselves, have been called by 
Eternal Providence to occupy so high a place in the 
scale of nations, and discharge so many a heaven-sent 
task in civilizing and christianizing the world; — a people 
endowed with energy, which has carried them to the 
frozen north and the torrid belt, and, whithersoever 
it has carried them, has earned for them a name of glory 
and renown, until at length their home may be said to 
be not so much England as the world at large. If, 
indeed, il the welfare of the coming world is now the 
proper care of the Anglo Saxon race/' 1 then at least 
the duty is incumbent on us to make the language of 
the coming world our proper care also. We must not 
forget, that still to the old mother country will the eyes of 
our children in every foreign land be turned for their 
patterns of excellence and truth in speaking and writing 
the English language. Surely, then, we cannot be 
too jealous of its integrity, nor bestow too much pains in 
increasing its intelligence and preserving its force and 
accuracy. There seems to us but one way in which this 
can be effectually and certainly done, and that way is 
by keeping our eyes steadily fixed on the great model 
of our language, the Anglo Saxon. 

1 " The West Indies and the Spanish Main." By Anthony Trollope, p. 85. 



CONCLUSION. 213 

But, if after all the importance of this subject fail 
to receive public recognition, and be left as heretofore 
to the regard of private and adult individuals only, 
then all hope of national progress must for the present 
be abandoned. The time, we feel assured, will come, 
sooner or later, when we shall look back with wonder 
and with shame on the hollow disregard wherewith we are 
now treating our own language. 

If on the contrary the time has now arrived, when 
we are prepared to admit the national importance of in- 
creased attention to the study of Auglo Saxon, not so 
much, perhaps, on its own account as on its intimate bear- 
ing on the language we speak and write, then the plan we 
would humbly advocate is, that the study of Anglo Saxon 
be introduced into our public and private schools as soon as 
possible ; that there, it should form the first language, after 
the rudiments of English are acquired, to which the 
attention of pupils is directed. 

It should be looked upon not as a fresh study, nor yet 
the study of a foreign language, but as a continuation of 
the study of English, and as the means — the only means — 
whereby a sound and accurate knowledge of the same may 
be obtained. It should be allowed to take the precedence, 
not only of the modern languages, which are so called, but 
also, as by its antiquity, the peculiar nature of its consti- 
tution and the purity of its origin it is so well calculated 
to do, of the languages of Greece and Rome. Its inflections 
being more perfectly developed than in the English, it 
admits of a more perfectly organized syntax, and a greater 
choice in arrangement than is the case with English com- 
position. 

In these respects, too, which it may be observed are 
merely supplemental to its grand object, it is admirably 
adapted to form a stepping stone — to abridge the wide 
chasm — between English and the still more elaborate and 
complicated structures of the Latin and Greek languages. 



APPENDICES. 



Page 34. Verbal Substantives. 

Vebbal Substantives are of two kinds,* those formed from the third 
person singular of the present, or indefinite lense of the Indicative Mood, 
and those from the past participle, Anglo Saxon verbs have but two tenses, 
the Indefinite and the Definite. The Indefinite, as the name implies, does 
not define any particular time, Avhether present, or future, but may refer to 
either ; accordingly, there is no future tense in the Anglo Saxon, nor. is there 
any, properly speaking, in English verbs, though we have got into the habit of 
supposing there is. "I will love" is nothing more than " I wish to love" I 
will, being the first person singular Indefinite, or Present Indicative of the 
Saxon verb Willan, To Wish, or Will, which makes its definite or past tense 
Wolde, thus also giving us the auxiliary would, as in "7 would love." So also 
the forms shall, should, are nothing more than the Indefinite, or present, 
and the Definite, or past, tenses of the Saxon verb Sceal, I must, I ought, I am 
obliged, frequently followed by -an Infinitive Mood, which in English escapes 
our notice when To, the only sign which distinguishes the Infinitive from 
the Indicative Mood, is omitted, as it frequently is. " I shall love," is simply 
" I must love." 

Neither was there a Passive Voice in Anglo Saxon any more than there 
is in English at the present day. The Anglo Saxons wrote " he is lufod." 
But he is is only the Indicative Mood Indefinite tense of the neuter verb 
Wesan, To be, and Lufod is the past participle of the active verb Lufian, To 
love. It may be very convenient to say, that " I may be loved" is the Poten- 
tial Mood Passive Voice of the verb "to be loved"; but it is nothing of the 
kind. The Saxons would have written it thus " Ic mseg beon lufod," where 
"Ic mseg," I may, would be properly referred to the verb Magan, To be able, 
(making its past tense Mihte, might) ; Beon would be the Infinitive Mood 
governed by Mseg, and Lufod, as before, the past participle of the verb 
Lufian, To love. 

The Definite Tense defines past time. 

Anglo Saxon Verbs, though they might almost be called English, are 
divided into two classes, Regular and Irregular. 

The Regular verbs form the past tense and the past participle in the 
same manner as our own regular verbs, such as To love, which makes the 
past tense and the past participle loved. 



216 VERBAL DERIVATIVES. BREAD. 

The Irregular verbs form the past tense by a change in the vowel of the 
root; and the past participle of these verbs end in en instead of ed; as 
Sine-an, (root, sing.), past tense Sang ; past participle Gesung-en ; or, in 
English, sing, sang, sung. 

With regard to the personal terminations of Anglo Saxon verbs it will 
be sufficient for our present purpose to say, that generally speaking, the third 
person singular of the Present or Indefinite Tense ends in $ : and hence are 
supposed to arise that large class of Anglo Saxon and English Substantives, 
which like mirth, birth, filth, are of such constant use. 

Scarcely less numerous, or important, are those substantives which have 
been derived from the various forms of the past participle. I have collected 
a few of them by way of example only, as it would occupy far too much space 
to attempt to do more. 

Bread. Broth. Cloth. 

The Saxon verb Breowan, or Briwan, To brew, gives us from the third 
person Singular of the Indefinite Indicative the Anglo Saxon Substantive 
BroS, 1 English Broth; and from the past participle (though not the regular 
past participle, which is Browen, but with participial ending ed) the Anglo 
Saxon Substantive Bread, English, Bread. 

It is strange that, while Mr. Home Tooke derives Broth from this verb, 
of Bread he says " it is the past participle of the verb to Bray (French, 
Broyer), i. e. To pound, or To beat to pieces : and the subandition is corn, 
or grain, or any other similar substances, such as chestnuts, acorns, &c." But 
this is both absurd and incorrect. It is absurd, because we know that the 
Anglo Saxon word Bread could not be derived from the verb To Bray, 
(French, Broyer), To pound, inasmuch as the word Bread was in existence 
in England, long before To bray was an English verb ; and being absurd, it 
must be incorrect. Indeed, the verb To bray, coming to us as it does 
through the French Broyer, has a Celtic origin, and it is a sheer impossi- 
bility that the Anglo Saxon word Bread can be referred to it. Mr. Tooke's 
very ingenuity is too much for him, and frequently, instead of assisting, 
only betrays him into error. Surely he could not have known, or, if he 
knew, could not have thought of the Saxon word (for such we may call it) 
Bread, when he made this wonderful discovery. For had he known it, he 
must have seen, that the onus of his task still rested upon him. 

1 Cf. with Broth and Malt the word meltith in the following passage : 
" If ye be thinking of the wreck wood that the callants brought in yesterday, 
there was six unces of it gaed to boil your parritch this morning, though I trow a 
carefu' man wad have ta'en drammock, if breakfast he behoved to have, rather 
than waste baith meltith and fuel in the same morning." 

The Pirate, vol. i. p. 95. 



VERBAL DERIVATIVES. CLOTH. 217 

Iii nothing is speculation more unsafe and deceptive than in Etymology. 
True, the temptation is sometimes a strong one to connect words together, 
and thence to seek an explanation, on the ground of mere similarity of sound. 
Yet the principle is a false one, and will generally lead to false results, or, at 
best, results on which no real dependence can be placed. 

In Etymological, as in every other branch of investigation, there are 
certain rules to regulate the enquiry, which can on no account be violated 
without fatal consequences. 

In many of his derivations Mr. Tooke appears to ignore the fact, though 
it is he himself who asserts it, that English is essentially and substantially 
Anglo Saxon, and to have prosecuted his labours, the great value of which 
no one can for a moment deny, too much under the impression that English 
dates only from the time it has been spoken. 

I shall give one more example by way of illustration, for the subject is 
one extensive enough to fill a whole volume, and this I shall take from the 
Anglo Saxon Yerb Hlid-an, To cover. This Yerb, of which the root is 
Anglo Saxon Hlid, 1 A lid, or Cover, makes the past participle Gehlidad, or 
Gehlyd, Covered. This word, slightly altered in spelling (Gehleod), signified 
in Anglo Saxon, A vault as of the heavens, from which, with some slight 
alteration of meaning, perhaps might come the English word Cloud. Mr. 
Tooke, indeed, would derive, not Cloud only, but those similarly sounding 
words, Glade, Mot, Lot, also, from this Yerb, Hlidan, or its compounds. 
Without absolutely denying that such is really the case, we would say, that 
Mr. Tooke brings forward nothing to support his hypothesis beyond mere 
conjecture. While he was on the subject, he might as well have included 
Blood amongst the rest (for it is at least probable that Blot and Blood were 
the same word originally), and we could as readily have believed him. With 
the exception of Lid and Lot, which really were Anglo Saxon words with 
the same meaning as they now bear, there is not an iota of evidence to show 
that these words are derived from the Anglo Saxon Hlidan, To cover; and it 
is by no means certain even that the Anglo Saxon word Hlot (sors), English 
Lot, is so derived. 

But there is another Anglo Saxon word Gehlifc, A covering, which is 
unquestionably a derivative from this Yerb, Hlidan, To cover. And this 
word it was, I suspect, which the Saxons afterwards contracted into the 
monosyllable Cla$, which is nothing more nor less than our English Cloth. 
So then, following out the analogy of Yerbal Substantives in ft(th), Cloth 
is no arbitrary word, with a mere conventional and usual meaning, but one 



1 A compound of this word Hlid, amongst the Saxons, was Hlid-geat, 
A postern-gate, A back-door. — Query: Is Ludgate a corruption of this 
compound? 



218 VERBAL DERIVATIVES HELM, HOLSTER, HELL, &C. 

for whose formation the very best of reasons can be given ; namely, that it 
essentially denotes that which clotheth, or cover eth, the body. But, indeed, 
the Verb, Hlidan, might almost be called an English word, since it occurs so 
late at any rate as the 14th Century. In Adam Davie's " Life of Alexander," 
unless we are mistaken, a corrupt form of the Anglo Saxon Verb, Hlidan, 
occurs : 

" Hire yalewe har (hair) was fayre attired, 

Mid rich strenge of golde wyred (twisted), 

It helyd hire abouten al 

To hire gentil myddle smal. 

Bright and shine was hir face 

Everie fairehede in her was." 

In this charming description of Dame Olympias, helyd is certainly to be 
referred to the above Yerb, Hlidan, or else to the Anglo Saxon Verb with 
the same meaning, Helan, To cover, from which also have descended such 
a numerous progeny. Let us consider for a moment what words this 
Anglo Saxon Verb, Helan, To hide, or cover, has bequeathed to us. This 
Verb, then, produced : 

(a) A. S. Helm, Something that covers. Hence we have obtained, 

1. Helm, or helmet, That which covers the head. Again, as applied 

to trees, the A. S. Helm, signified the foliage, or covering. 
Hence, I suppose, 

2. Haulm, or Halm; and 

3. The Holme, or evergreen oak. 

(b) A. S. Hoi, A hiding place, cavern, den ; whence descend 

4. Hole and Hollovj. 

(c) A. S. Holt, A covered place. Hence, 

5. Holt, as Osier holt. 

(d) A. S. Heolster, A hiding place, a cave. Hence, 

6. Holster, A cover, or case for a horseman's pistol. 

(e) A. S. Hule, The husk, or covering of anything, as of corn. Hence, 

7. Hull (of a vessel). 

(/) A. S. Hell, A concealed place; also, used by the Anglo Saxons to 
denote, The grave. Hence, 

8. Hell. 

Berne, Barn} Page 36. 

Earlier forms of this word are Beren, Berern, that is Bere-ern. Now 
Bere-ern is an Anglo Saxon word, compounded of Bere, Barley, and Em, or 
jErn, A place, A closet. 

1 I forget whether Mr. Tooke's derivation of Barn from Bar-en, (the p. p. of 
the Verb To Bar) i.e. A place barred up to keep thieves, 8{c. out, has been noticed. 
Of course it is quite unnecessary to ofler any comment upon it. 



BERE, BIRTH, BARN, BARM, BEER, &C. 219 

Bere x , or Barley, was a grain much grown by our Saxon Ancestors in 
England : we read, of the Bere-hlaf, or Barley-loaf, but not of Wheat-loaf. 
And I suspect its evident connexion with the Anglo Saxon verb Beran, To 
produce, To bear (and afterwards) To excel, is to be traced to the fact, that 
Bere, or Barley, was that produce of the earth on which our Ancestors 
mainly depended for their sustenance. 

It makes no essential difference to our present investigation, whether we 
assume the above word Bere, or with Dr. Bosworth the Eranco-Theotisc 
Bar, Fruit, Any produce of the earth, to be the root of the Anglo-Saxon verb 
Beran. Undoubtedly, if Bere and Bar be not the same word, one of them 
is the root, and it matters not which. The following words, then, Anglo 
Saxon and English, constitute the members of this family. 

(a) Verbal Derivatives from the Anglo Saxon verb Ber-an, To bear, 
produce, carry. 

1. Birth, Anglo Saxon Ber5, third person Singular, A bringing forth. 

2. Beam, 2 Anglo Saxon Beam, One born, A child. Erom this word 

according to Wachter is derived 

3. Baron. 

4. Barm, or Yeast; that which is borne up, Anglo Saxon Bearme. 

5. Bier, Anglo Saxon Bser, A portable bed. 

6. Bird, 3 (perhaps). Anglo Saxon Brid, the young of any animal. 
(6) Anglo Saxon and English words connected with Bere, Barley. 

1. Bam, Anglo Saxon Bern, i. e. Bere-sern, A storehouse, or recep- 

tacle for Barley ; iErn, signifying A place. 

2. Barton, Anglo Saxon Bere-tun, in connexion with Anglo Saxon 

Tun, An enclosure; similarly we have Berwic in connexion with 
VFic, A dwelling. 

3. Beer, Anglo Saxon Beor, 

4. Berry, Anglo Saxon Berie. 

1 " Now good be gracious to us," said Triptolemus, as he sate thumbing his 
old school copy of Virgil, ".here is a pure day for the bear seed." 

Pirate, vol. I. p. 83. 

2 Also written "Bern." Thus in the " Pirate," "He remarked moreover that 
the hern preferred home-brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never quitted hold 
of the tankard with so much reluctance as when there had been by some man- 
oeuvre of Jasper's own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the brewing, &c." 

Vol. i. p. 67. 

3 This is Dr. Bosworth' s derivation, but, if Bird and Brood were originally 
the same word, then we must refer both, as Breed also, to the verb Brceden, To 
hatch. 

4 Though there are several towns in England of this name, there is one on 
the south shore of the Humber in North Lincolnshire, through which the great 
North Street passes, famous to this day as a corn growing district. 



220 STRENGTH, MOULD. 

The Anglo Saxon word .Era, of which together with Bere Barn is 
compounded, enters into the composition of a few other words. Dom-ern, 
with the Anglo Saxons, signified A place of Judgment ; Carc-ern, A prison, 
or place of care, x i. e. trouble and labour. It is supposed to survive in the 
English words Northern, Southern, &c, with the signification of towards the 
North, South, &c. 

Strong, Strength. Page 46. 

Neither is Strong the past participle, nor is Strength the third singular 
of the Verb, To siring. This method of deriving Saxon words from English 
Verbs, is highly reprehensible. It cannot be denied that the Verb To string, 
did at one time make its past participle Strong, which is only another form 
of Strung ; but from this mere outward resemblance, to assert, that hence is 
derived the Adjective Strong, is simply childish. If the Adjective Strong is 
the past participle of the Verb, To string, to what must the Saxon word 
Streng, Strong, be referred ? similarly with regard to Strength, and Anglo 
Saxon Strengfc ? 

The Anglo Saxon Substantive Streng, or String, A string, produced the 
Verb String-an, To compress, or bind together ; thence To make strong. 
This Verb makes the past tense Strang, and past participle Strungen. From 
the former of these arose the Anglo Saxon Adjective Strang, or Strong, 
which is our English Adjective Strong ; while Strength is simply Anglo 
Saxon Strengfc, the verbal Substantive formed from the third person Sin- 
gular of the same verb. 

Mould, Mouldij. Page 53. 

The question of the parentage, whether Saxon, or Norman, is not very 
easy to decide. Mr. Tooke so rudely shakes the faith we might otherwise be 
inclined to repose in him, by his preposterous derivation of Malt,' 2 that it is 
impossible for any further remarks of his on this subject to have the weight 
of a straw in influencing our decision. 

Mr. Tyrwhitt says the word is Saxon, as it occurs in the following 
passages of Chaucer :— 

" But ike am old ; me list not play for age ; 
Gras time is done, my foddre is now forage. 
This white top writeth min olde yeres ; 
Min herte is also mouled as min heres." 

The Reves Prologue. 

1 Care is the Anglo Saxon word for care ; hence the expression " carking- 
care," is simply a tautology. 

2 See page 52. 



YARD, GOME;, GROOM. 221 

" Let us not moulen thus in idlenesse." 

The Man of Lawes Prologue. 

Mr. Thomas Wright, on the contrary, calls the word Anglo Norman ; 
though on what grounds we do not know. The following passages, assuming 
as I think we may do, that the same root is contained both in moled and 
moles, would certainly point us to the Anglo Saxon Substantive Mai, A mole, 
spot, mark, blot. 

" I tooke good kepe, by Crist ! 

And Conscience bothe, 

Of Hanky n the actif man, 

And how he was y-clothed. 

He hadde a cote of Cristendom, 

As holy kirke bileveth ; 

And it was moled in many places 

With many sondry plottes." 

Then shortly after in speaking of this self-same coat— * 

"By Crist !" quod Conscience tho, 
Thi beste cote Hankyn 
Hath many moles and spottes, 
It moste ben y-wasshe." 



Yard of Beef. Page 96. 

" 1 did purpose to have fasted this morning, as well to save victuals as on 
a religious score ; but the blessings of the saints must not be slighted.— Sir 
Cook, let me have half a yard or so of broiled beef presently; bid the pantler 
send me a manchet, and the butler a cup of wine. I will take a running 
fast on the western battlements."* 

* " Old Henry Jenkins, in his recollections of the Abbacies before their 
dissolution has preserved the fact, that roast beef was delivered out to the 
guests, not by weight, but by measure." 

The Betrothed. Page 124 and Note. 



Gome. Page 106. 

Gome is clearly the Anglo Saxon word Guma, A man. But whence 
comes the word Groom, so much resembling it? Mr. Tooke thinks that 
Groom is simply a corruption of Gome ; yet, if it be, it must have been a 
very early one, since both the words, both Gome and Grom, occur in the 
" Vision of Piers Ploughman," as early as the fourteenth century : 

"I Gloton, quod the grom, 
Gilty me yelde 

That I have trespassed with my tonge 
I can noght telle how ofte." 

Lines, 3221—3224. 



222 AUGHT, THAN. 

It is difficult to account for the insertion of the letter r, as it does not appear 
either in the Anglo Saxon, or in any of the cognate languages— the Gothic, 
German, Dutch, Danish, or Swedish — where we should have expected, or not 
have been surprised, to find it. The Anglo Saxon word corresponding to, if 
not identical with, the word Bride-groom, is Bry'd-gunia. 

Aught. Page 113. 

The Substantive Aught, is the Anglo Saxon A'ht, Aught, Anything, 
Something. The question then resolves itself into this ; what is the Anglo 
Saxon A'ht ? That this also is a derivative from the Verb A'gan, To Own, or 
Possess, is highly probable, not only because it is literally the past tense of 
that Yerb, A'ht, but also from the further consideration of this perfect, which 
in the 3rd person singular is written iEhte, appearing again as the Substan- 
tive A'ht, with a signification to all intents and purposes the same as that of 
JE'ht, Aught, namely, Property of any kind, Lands, Goods, Riches, Cattle, 
&c. Of course Naught is the Anglo Saxon Naht, i. e. Na-a'ht, N-a'ht, 
Nothing. 

Another example of the old meaning of the verb Aught will be found in 
" Red Gauntlet," Vol. II. p. 62. 

" God forbid Mr. Fairford ! I who have done and suffered in the forty- 
five ! I reckon the Highlandmen did me damage to the amount of £100. 
Scots, forby all they ate and drunk.— No, no, Sir ; I stand beyond challenge ; 
but as for plaguing myself with county business, 'let them that aught the 
mare shoe the mare." 5 

Than. Pages 138, 146. 

There is no difference between than and then, except that which 
usage and convention have begotten. We might gather thus much even 
from the ambiguous usage of the two words in the Breeches Bible, and when 
we ascend still higher to the Anglo Saxon, the question is settled at once by 
their entire coincidence. The following, according to Ettinuller, are the 
various meanings in which this Relative Pronoun was used by the Anglo 
Saxons : — 

1. Adverb. Tunc, Turn, Then. 

Example : " And >onne com J>u sifiSan and bring J?inu lac :" And 
then come thou afterwards and bring thy gift. 

2. Conjunction : 

(a) Quam, Than, after a comparative. 

Example : " SoSlice ic secge eow. Buton eower rihtwisnys mare 
sy >onne J>sera writera and sundor-halgena. Na ga ge on heo- 
fenan rice." Matth. v. 20. " Truly, I say to you, unless your 
righteousness be more than (that) of the Scribes and Phari- 
sees " &c. 



THAN. 223 

(b) Ergo, Antem, Igitur, Therefore. 

Example : " Hu mseg J>onne his rice standan." How therefore 
may his kingdom stand." Matth. xv. 26. 

(c) Nam, i^or. 

(d) 2%ew, in introducing a conclusion. 

(e) Si, J/. 

(/) Quando, TPAerc. 

Example : " Se mona hwil-tidum bonne he full byS." 
(g) Quam si, Than if. 

Example : " Hwelc is wyrsa w61 oftfte seninum men mare darn, 
J?onne he hsebbe feond on freondes anlicnesse." "What is a 
greater calamity or more mischievous to any man, than if he 
have an enemy in the disguise of a friend ? " 

Such were the meanings and uses of the word J?onne, or >enne, or >8enne, 
for, though spelt in all these different ways, it is still the same word amongst 
the Saxons. But it is more particularly its function in enabling us to com- 
pare one thing with another which we have now to consider, and the argu- 
ments which may be adduced from the analogy of other languages in defence 
of the theory we have already laid down. We will begin, then, by asking 
what is the verdict of Latin ? What is the word Quam, that word which is 
precisely analogous to the J?senne in the Anglo Saxon ? What is Quam, but 
the same case of the same Relative Pronoun; that is, the corresponding 
Eelative Pronoun in the Latin Tongue ? The only difference seems to be, 
that instead of taking the masculine gender, as was the case in the Anglo 
Saxon, the Latins have taken the feminine gender ; simply, no doubt, because 
with them the original Substantive which was afterwards dropped, was of 
the feminine gender. 

Again, is the method of instituting comparisons in the Greek language 
likely to assist us at all? True, it is impossible to speak with the same 
certainty of the nature and origin of the comparative particle v, as we can of 
the corresponding particles Quam and Than, in Latin and English. Yet, is 
it highly improbable, that even the Greek particle v, should have been, in 
the early period of the language, a relative Pronoun ? On this point, how- 
ever, we do not insist, but pass on to consider another peculiarity in the 
construction of comparative clauses in Latin and Greek, and even English 
too. Every schoolboy knows, that in the former two a comparison may be 
expressed by using one of the particles, Quam, or v, as the case may be, or, 
otherwise, by placing the second Substantive, that with which the principal 
Substantive is compared, in the Ablative Case in Latin, or in the Genitive 
case in Greek. Now what are these but Genitives, or Ablatives absolute ? 
Tacitus says, 

" Ees prosperse acriore stimulo animos explorant quam adversae ; quia 
miserise tolerantur felicitate corrumpimur." 



224 ANGLO SAXON AND LATIN. 

which we may render for the sake of comparison " Prosperity tries the dis- 
position with a keener probe than adversity ; because the latter is endured, 
by the former we are corrupted." 

Here it will be observed, that quam adversce, exactly corresponds to than 
adversity, and, were we to supply, or complete the ellipsis, we should read, 
" Quern (for Quam) stimulum"— ">onne (for )>one) gad," — " Which probe" — 
Adversity tries the disposition with. Where " Quern stimulum" "^>onne 
(i. e. J>one) gud," and " Which probe" are ungoverned accusatives, introduced, 
not as Agents, but, if we may so speak, as dummies for the purpose of com- 
paring something else with them. But the comparison, in the Latin, might 
have been otherwise expressed, instead of by quam adversce, by adversis. 
And in that case what would adversis be but an Ablative Absolute, standing 
by implication for "adiiersis rebus acri stimulo animos explorantibus." Which, 
in reality, is only another method of introducing the dummy. And similarly, 
in the Greek the particle v, might have been replaced by the Genitive Abso- 
lute. 

Of course it is useless to apply to the Romance Languages for further 
information, as they would only dimly reflect the light already borrowed 
from the Latin. We may, however, observe that the Dutch Dan, and the 
German Denn (the Accusative Masculine of the Article, or Relative Der, 
Die, Das, just as J?onne is of Se, Seo, >set) afford additional strength to our 
arguments. 

It is true, there are other particles for expressing comparison, both in 
German and English, which, like angry creditors will not accede to the terms 
of our composition. Such are the German Als, and the provincial English 
(I scarce know how to spell the word) Nor : " He is no better nor he ought 
to be." What the word nor may be, and why it is thus used, I have hitherto 
been unable to ascertain. 



Anglo Saxon and Latin Words indicating original connexion. 
Page 181. 

The following examples, which seem to point clearly to the connexion 
between, and in some sort the common origin of, the Anglo Saxon and Latin 
languages, have been selected from amongst many others, and it is hoped are 
examples against which no objection can be urged on the score of Latin in- 
fluence on Anglo Saxon, posterior to the introduction of the latter into this 
country. We have but to remind the reader of that important principle in 
Phonetics, we might almost call it, which is so important an agent in diversi- 
fying, though in reality of shewing the connexion between apparently dif- 
ferent dialects, or even languages. We refer, of course, to the interchange 
amongst themselves respectively of the consonants which form the three 
principal classes of sound ; namely, the Jc, p, and t sounds. The consonants 



AXGLO SAXON AND LATIN. 



225 



pronounced with the throat, and therefore called Gutter als, or h (c hard) 
sounds are c, g, h (a;) ; those with the tongue, and therefore called Linguals, 
or t sounds, are t, d, th (J>, ft) and (z) ; lastly, those with the lips, hence called 
Labials, or p sounds, are p, b,f. As a simple illustration of this interchange, 
take the English word Seven. In the Gothic it appears as Sibun; in the 
Anglo Saxon as Seofon; in the Latin as Septem; and in the English (from 
the Saxon) Seven. 

Other phonetical laws, and scarcely less important than this for the in- 
fluence they have had in modifying the external appearance— the dress of a 
language, so to speak, without destroying the generic characteristics, we must 
not stop, nor is this the place, to consider. 

The following, then, are the examples we have selected :— 

Anglo Saxon. Latin. 

Fefer, A Fever Febris, Ferveo. 

Feorm, Food Frumentum. 

• Brucan, To Use, Enjoy Fruor. 

Metan, To Measure Metior. 

Midde, Middle Medius. 

Micg-an, To Water Ming-cre. 

Misc-an, To Mix Misc-cre. 

Tribul-an, To Beat, Pound Tribulo. 

Grada, A Step Gradus. 

Geot-an, To pour \ I Gutta. 

Geota, A Pourer Y -j Guttur. 

Gyte, A Pourinp j 1 Guttus. 

Ssel, Health Salus. 

Spiw-an, To Spue Spu-ere. 

Man-ian, To Advise Mon-ere. 

Mynd, (Gothic, Munds) Mind Mens. 

Cyste, Virtue i 

Cost, Approved J 

Ange, Trouble, Anguish Angor, Anxius. 

Sitt-an, To Sit Sed-eo. 

Eorre, Anger Ira. 

Cear, Care Cura. 

Tihtle, An Accusation, from ) J Titulus. 

Teon, To Say, To Point to / ( Titulo. 

Pin, Pin, Punishment Poena. 

c ' i To Such Sug-ere. 

Sug-an, ) ° 

Scort, Short Curtus. 

"Widewe, A Widow Viduus. 

&c. &c. 

Q 



226 NORMAN FRENCH. 

Romance Wallon. Page 187. 

" Frankes spech is cald Eomance 
So say clerkes and men of France." 

Robert de JBrunne. 

As in studying the English language, the nearer we approach the 
times of Saxon domination, the closer does the resemblance of English to 
the Anglo Saxon tongue become; so in the French, the greater the 
antiquity, within certain limits, the more closely does the Eomance Wallon 
resemble the Latin. As English tends towards, and is finally merged into 
Anglo Saxon, so does French tend towards, and finally coincide with Latin. 
Of course, this Latin was not the language of Classic Some, but rather 
the barbarous and corrupted dialect of the far distant provinces of Gaul. 
Still, it was Latin; the vocabulary Latin, the inflexion Latin. It would 
be quite impossible, as well as out of place, to attempt to give any detailed 
account here of the rise and progress of this language. Those who are desirous 
of such information, we may confidently refer to Chapters vn. and vni^of 
" Sismondi's Literature of the South of Europe," "Vol. I., and for an account 
of its connexion and influence with the Anglo Saxon, whence in the course 
of time the English Language sprang, we may as confidently refer the 
reader to Dr. Wharton's " History of English Poetry," Vol. i., where he 
will find the whole subject most fully and ably discussed. There is, 
however, one leading fact, which cannot fail to attract the attention of the 
most superficial student of these times, on account of the paramount 
influence it must have had in modifying the Saxon, and so giving birth 
to the English. We refer to the prevalence of the Prench metrical 
Eomances in this country during the earlier period of the Norman sway. 
By means of these metrical Eomances, and the English Translations 
which were presently made of them, we apprehend, the Eomance Wallon 
must mainly have made its influence felt. 

Had the Norman Conquest been only, what it was, the successful subju- 
gation of a stubborn people to a foreign yoke, the Saxon language would 
never have yielded to external influence, even to the extent it did. But the 
Conquest was not merely such a subjugation; and the Norman Kings, 
in inviting over from Normandy the composers of the Metrical Eomances 
and the Gestours, adopted, perhaps unconsciously, the very surest means 
of giving to the Eomance Language a footing in this country. And how 
nearly these measures had succeeded we may have some idea from the facts, 
that Gower, the English Poet, wrote some of his earlier works in French, 
and that Chaucer was the first who had the courage " to emancipate the 
muse from the trammels of French in which at his time it Avas the prevailing 
fashion to write." In some copies of Bishop Grosthead's French Eomance, 
called " Chateau d' Amour" there is the following apology for the poem 



NORMAN FRENCH. 227 

being written in- French : " And although the Eomance Tongue is looked 
upon with distaste by the learned, yet, for the sake of the laity, who are 
less educated, the work has been written in that Tongue. 1 

"It was undoubtedly," says Dr. "Wharton, "a great impediment to the 
cultivation and progressive improvement of the English language, at these 
early periods, that the best authors chose to write in French." 

Beyond a few ballads, which were sung, or recited, by strolling minstrels, 
at the]village ale-bench, or the country manor-house, we meet with no original 
productions in English for some centuries after the Conquest. Those who 
alone had the power of cultivating and rewarding the muse, as well as of en- 
joying and appreciating her during these troublesome times, were of Norman 
extraction ; they spoke the Norman Tongue, and affected to despise the 
manly, though less sweetly flowing, accents of the Anglo Saxon. When 
at length time burnt out from the minds of the Saxon population the bitter 
recollection of past suffering and degradation, and they began to awake to 
the consciousness, that life had still its blandishments to offer them, they 
emulated the example of their Norman Masters, and sought and found 
recreation in the recital of those same metrical Romances, not indeeed in 
the original Romance dialect, but translated into their own tongue. Nearly 
all the tales of Adventure and Knight-Errantry with which our language 
presently swarmed were nothing more than translations from the French : 
and there can be no doubt, it was mainly through the means of these 
translations, that the Saxon became impregnated with so vast a mass of 
Norman, that is, French words. 

1 "Et quamvis lingua Romana coram clericis saporem suavitatis non 
habeat, tamen pro laicis qui minus intelligunt, opusculum illud aptum est." 
The reader will observe that the textual rendering is not altogether literal. 



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